Suit blames mining firm for deadly flood

We recently reported Nally and Hamilton Enterprises Inc. may have to pay fines for falsifying water-pollution data from its strip mines in Eastern Kentucky. Now the firm faces more legal trouble as more than 70 residents near a mine have sued, alleging "improper surface mining practices" resulting in flooding that killed a man and destroyed numerous homes, Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. (Estep photo)

The suit claims the company "did not properly reclaim its mine and failed to keep drainage ponds cleaned out," Estep reports. With less holding capacity, excess water could have run off-site during heavy rainfall June 20. Homes were washed off their foundations and others coated with mud.

The suit, seeking unspecified compensation, also suggests negligence and reckless conduct by the company led to the death of Donnie Joe Pate, 55, who was swept from his mobile home during the flooding, Estep reports. His mother Wilma Ruth Pate Hamilton, 79, was injured. Jack Spadaro, former federal mining official and consultant on the lawsuit told Estep, this appears to be the first Kentucky claim alleging surface mining flooding led directly to a death. This complaint is one of several suits blaming mining companies for excessive flooding in Eastern Kentucky. (Read more)

Rural tourism opportunities will be focus of conference in Northern Alabama Oct. 24-26

Tourism organizations in Alabama and Mississippi are partnering to present the 2011 Alabama-Mississippi Rural Tourism Conference in Florence, Ala., Oct. 24-26. The goal of the conference is to explore rural tourism and encourage rural communities to participate.

"Rural areas often underestimate their tourism potential and leave millions of dollars on the table that could provide substantial economic advantages for their communities," Debbie Wilson, executive director of Florence-Lauderdale Tourism, told Russ Corey of the Times Daily in Florence. The three-day event will feature speakers sharing success stories and interactive educational sessions with practical approaches to tourism development.

The event is open to tourism officials and others interested in the rural tourism industry. The event will be at the Marriott Shoals Hotel and Conference Center in Florence. About 120 are registered and registration is still open, Corey reports. Scholarships may still be available. To register for the conference or get more information, click here.

Former official: DEA failed to slow prescription drug abuse epidemic by not limiting production

At a time when Oxycontin abuse was rapidly increasing, the Drug Enforcement Agency had the power to slow production of the drug and perhaps stave off what is now a prescription drug abuse epidemic in rural areas across the country, reports Guy Taylor of Salon. However, the agency allowed production of Oxycodone, the non-generic form of Oxycontin, to increase by 1,200 percent over a decade.

After the Food and Drug Administration approves a drug for production and sale, a section of the DEA known as the Office of Diversion Control decides how much of a drug can be manufactured. By law, the makers of Oxycodone and its generic forms have to present a quota approval application to Diversion Control. The office decides whether the amount requested can be manufactured. With the help of statistics provided by a former head of Diversion Control, Gene Haislip, Taylor discovered that in 1997 when Purdue Pharma first introduced Oxycontin, it was allowed to make 8.3 tons. This year, the DEA approved the manufacture of 105 tons.

Haislip tells Taylor DEA approved the increase in production in the face of a growing drug abuse epidemic,  showing a "serious lack of accountability and oversight." Says Haislip: "The DEA is the lone federal agency with the power to decide how much of the drug gets made and put out there; it alone has had all the responsibility to do something about this problem." He told Taylor the agency should have learned from two examples in the 1970s and 1980s, when Diversion Control reduced quota requests for pill-based amphetamines and Methaqualone, the main ingredient in Quaaludes. When the quotas were reduced, illicit use of those drugs significantly decreased.

Asked why the agency allowed the production quota of Oxycodone to increase so much, DEA supervisory special agent Gary Boggs told Taylor the agency is required to set quotas at a level that "ensures an uninterrupted supply for the legitimate medical and scientific research needs of the United States, and that those needs are always changing as the population grows and as medical science finds different needs for products." He said there are patients who need the drug for medical purposes and the agency cannot limit their access because of those who abuse it.

Taylor opines: "The fact is that the U.S. government has adopted a position on prescription painkillers that differs from its policy toward other controlled substances such as cocaine, heroin and marijuana: Unlike those drugs, the DEA says limiting the supply of the prescription painkillers will not reduce abuse." He reports the agency's lack of oversight in the production of Oxycodone is "perplexing" to state and local governments now battling prescription pill abuse crises in their areas. Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services director Orman Hall told Taylor the "the loss of life and the carnage associated" with prescription drug abuse could have been prevented had the DEA limited the production of Oxycodone. (Read more)

States impose drug tests for public assistance

Legislators in 36 states this year proposed drug testing requirements for people receiving assistance through government programs like welfare, unemployment assistance, job training, food stamps and public housing. Drug testing laws passed in three states this year: Arizona, Indiana and Missouri.

These programs are widely used in rural areas where poverty persists. Opponents say the laws reinforce stereotypes about the poor, while proponents say they will prevent misuse of tax dollars, A.G. Sulzberger of The New York Times reports.

In Arizona, Teri Walker of the Arizona Journal reports that if applicants applying for assistance answer "yes" to a question about recent drug use, they are tested and risk losing their benefits for a year if they test positive. Sulzherger reports that only 16 out of 64,000 applicants answered "yes," and the estimated savings as a result were $116,000. Walker reports that the bill establishes random drug testing every two weeks for welfare recipients. If recipients refuse to take the test, their benefits are cut off.

The testing program in Missouri will initially cost $600,000 to $900,000, reports Rebecca Berg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Officials will be looking for "reasonable suspicion" of drug abuse as a means to pick who gets tested. Recipients could lose benefits for three years if they test positive, but children can still receive benefits through a third party if a parent loses benefits. In Indiana, drug testing is now part of the application-for-benefits process. If a person tests positive or refuses to take the test, the application will be denied. If they later pass a second drug test, benefits will be restored.

Sulzberger reports that most drug testing bills have failed to receive support because of legal fears stemming from a court ruling in Michigan that drug testing laws violated constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure. In Florida, where those receiving benefits have had to pay for their own drug tests since July, the number of applicants for programs has dramatically decreased. There's also dispute that cost of administering drug tests would far outweigh the small amount of savings these laws would create.

Proposals for drug-testing bills increased when Republicans won majorities in numerous state legislatures last year. While advocates for the poor contend these laws "single out and vilify victims of the recession," proponents say drug testing for benefits is no more invasive than drug testing as part of applying for a job. Measures to prevent known drug abusers from receiving benefits are already in place in some states, but because state budgets are currently stretching thinner, an impatience with providing aid to the poor has flourished. (Read more)

Chief of Packers and Stockyards Administration under Clinton questions proposed marketing rules

Jim Baker, left, first administrator of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, in the Clinton administration, tells Agri-Pulse that he disagrees with the Obama administration's proposed rules to eliminate unfairness among livestock and poultry producers by meatpackers. (Photo from Agri-Pulse)

Baker, who was a sale-barn operator and cow-calf producer for more than 40 years, said the proposal would take ranchers back to the days before incentives were paid for better quality cattle. "If you have dang good cattle, you want to take advantage of the grid program. It's just a marketing tool," he told Agri-Pulse, a Washington-based newsletter.

Baker said the Packers and Stockyards Act gives GIPSA the necessary authority to oversee the livestock markets and he blames current GIPSA Administrator Dudley Butler for Eastern Livestock Company's collapse, suggesting he was too preoccupied with the proposed reform. Agri-Pulse is subscription-only but offers a free, four-issue trial subscription.

Residential use of wood to heat up 34% from 2000

The use of wood for residential heating has risen one-third over the past decade, an analysis of last year's census shows, Tiffany Stecker of ClimateWire reports. At the same time, use of propane gas and heating oil dropped by 16 and 21 percent, respectively.

Higher oil prices, lower incomes and the search for less expensive fuel may all contribute to the increase in wood-based heating, Stecker reports. Michigan and Connecticut showed the largest increases in wood usage at 135 and 122 percent, respectively. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Ohio and Nevada's usage almost doubled, Alliance for Green Heat reports.

John Ackerly, president of the alliance, speculates that less than 10 percent comes from commercially made wood pellets used in cleaner-burning, EPA-approved stoves, Stecker reports.

Calif. telehealth law may improve rural residents' access, lead to similar laws in other states

A new California law may make it easier for rural doctors and hospitals to use telehealth services. The law will eliminate the current in-person visit requirement before telehealth can be used, the required written consent form from patients, and the required independently credentialing doctors must obtain for each hospital where they will perform telehealth services, Jasmine Viel of KION reports.

The law "will be extremely beneficial to people in rural districts like mine, because it will allow health care providers to deliver better care at a lower cost to people that were previously out of reach," Rep. Dan Logue said in a news release. "Telehealth is a valuable tool that helps connect patients in underserved areas of the state to doctors and specialists that are located far from where the patient resides."

The law will become effective Jan. 1. It was supported by the California State Rural Health Association, the Center for Connected Health Policy, the California Telemedicine and eHealth Center, the California Telehealth Network and many other health-care organizations, Molly Merrill of Healthcare IT News reports. Steve Barrow, executive director of the state rural health group, said in a news release that the law will likely become a model for similar legislation across the nation. (Read more)

Bill in committee Thursday would likely require annual increases in newspapers' postal rates

A founding principle of American democracy, that newspapers should pay favorable postal rates so that the maximum number of voters can be informed about public issues, would be eroded by a bill scheduled for action in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Thursday morning.

The committee agenda includes HR 2309, sponsored by Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. It would reorganize the U.S. Postal Service, allow it to end Saturday mail delivery (a major rural issue) and require rates for periodicals (newspapers and magazines) to rise at least 5 percent per year "when costs are allegedly under 90 percent of cost coverage," according to the National Newspaper Association, the lobby for weekly and small daily newspapers, which rely on the mail.

NNA says the bill "takes for granted the USPS claim that . . . the class as a whole fails to generate enough revenue to cover costs. The provision could be understandable in a system where all mail is required to cover its costs. But the periodicals mailing industries have long questioned the reliability of mail processing cost figures." NNA says that is especially true of USPS cost estimates for newspapers mailed within the paper's home county, the majority of almost all papers' circulation and the heart of the democratic rationale for favorable rates. "NNA's attacks on the reliability of the system caused the Postal Rate Commission to adjust the costs numerous times over the past 20 years. PRC has issued several reports questioning the data reliability."

NNA says the committee may consider amendments to delay implementation of the 5 percent increase until 2015, after which time the bill's cost-control provisions may have kicked in; or cap the increase at 2 percent. For the full NNA statement, click here.

Washington state Medicaid limits emergency room visits not classified urgent; other states may follow

On Saturday, the state of Washington enacted a rule limiting the number of emergency-room visits it will cover for a Medicaid patient if the visit is not deemed an emergency. The rule, intended to keep costs under control, has many doctors concerned and the Washington Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians is suing the state to block the plan, Julian Pecquet of The Hill reports. Stephen Anderson, president of the Washington Chapter, said 19 other states are working to develop such a policy, and "If this plan goes into effect, other states will certainly follow."

The Washington rule limits Medicaid patients to three "non-emergency" visits per year and categorizes more than 700 diagnoses — including chest pain, abdominal pain, miscarriage and breathing problems — as "non-emergent," Pecquet reports. This puts hospitals that "are mandated by law to accept all emergency patients, regardless of ability to pay" in a tough spot, reports Sheila Hagar of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. "All that does is drive up the cost of health care for paying customers." (Read more) The emergency doctors' suit suggests the state did not meet requirements of the legislature because it failed to seek stakeholder comments before imposing the plan, Pecquet reports.

Two-day seminar on digital future of community newspapers, Oct. 20-21, will be webcast

Rural newspaper editors and publishers have a chance to hear the latest thinking about community newspapers and the digital age in a seminar to be webcast next Thursday and Friday.

The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, with the help of the Missouri Press Association, is holding the free conference for community newspaper publishers and editors. "Community Newspapers: Tomorrow has Arrived" boasts an impressive lineup; here are some examples, starting with the first two presentations:

"How Life Changes When High-Speed Broadband Arrives:" Esther Thorson, graduate dean of the journalism school, is a leading researcher in the field. Perhaps she will offer one of the most instructive statistical comparisons we have ever heard: In 2003, the last year that more Americans had dialup than broadband, an Arbitron survey found that the average household with dialup spent 24 minutes a day with a printed newspaper, and those with broadband spent only 6.6 minutes per day. Broadband offers compelling content, such as video, and in the competition for readers' and viewers' time, newspapers must also offer compelling content.

"Mobile is Critical:" Roger Fidler, digital publishing director at the Reynolds Institute, may wake up his listeners with this consensus prediction: By 2013, more than half of all Internet access is expected to be obtained through mobile devices. Newspapers must be mobile, and that is especially true in rural areas, where many residents commute long distances to work and research by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues suggests that the longer the commute, the less likely they are to read their local newspaper.

The first two presentations on Friday's schedule are "Three Things That You Must Own," with Assistant Professor Stephanie Padgett of the J-school, Bill Miller Jr. of the Washington Missourian, Brad Gentry of the Houston Herald and Andy Waters of the Columbia Daily Tribune; and "Believers, Nonbelievers and Fence Straddlers: Community Newspapers and the Web in 2011," from Gary Sosniecki of TownNews.com and Mike McKean, director of the Futures Lab at the Reynolds Institute.

The seminar will be held Thursday, Oct. 20 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT and Friday, Oct. 21, from 9 a.m, to 2:30 p.m. CDT. The link for the webcast is www.rjionline.org/live. For the full agenda, speaker biographies and other information, click here.

Agency is pressured to re-post database of doctors' malpractice and disciplinary cases

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley has joined journalists, academic researchers and consumer groups in calling on the Health Resources and Services Administration to put back online the National Practitioner Data Bank, a database of malpractice and disciplinary cases against doctors.

"In a strongly worded letter, the Iowa Republican, who has led investigations of fraud and waste in government health programs, said the now-removed file 'serves as the backbone in providing transparency for bad-acting health care professionals'," Duff Wilson of The New York Times reports. Grassley gave HRSA, part of the the Department of Health and Human Services, until Oct. 21 to hand over documents and answer a series of questions, ending with "What is your timeline for getting the database up and running again?"

For a PDF of Grassley's letter, click here. Under pressure, the agency has scheduled a conference call on the issue for Thursday, Oct. 13, from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern Time.

The database "was created in 1986 for hospitals, medical boards, insurers and others to share information so that bad doctors do not slip through cracks in reporting," Wilson writes. The law makes doctors' names confidential, but the database has a Public Use File for researchers and journalists, in which doctors are identified only by numbers.

Some journalists have been able to identify doctors using information from other sources, such as lawsuits. "After a complaint by one doctor identified by The Kansas City Star, the agency threatened the newspaper reporter with a fine, pulled the doctor’s file from its Web site on Sept. 1 and began a review of how to hide the identities better," Wilson reports. "Its actions provoked protests" from the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and other groups. In a letter, they told HRSA, "Nothing in the Public Use File can be used to identify individuals if reporters or researchers don’t already know for whom they are searching."

Grassley wrote, "It seems disturbing and bizarre that HRSA would attempt to chill a reporter’s First Amendment activity with threats of fines for merely 'republishing' public information from one source and connecting it with public information from another. A journalist’s shoe-leather reporting is no justification for such threats or for HRSA to shut down public access to information that Congress intended to be public."

The Public Use File can be downloaded from the website of Investigative Reporters and Editors, one of the groups, protesting its removal from the HRSA site, but "that file will be more and more out-of-date as the dispute goes on," Wilson notes. She also reports that Robert E. Oshel, associate director for research and disputes in the Division of Practitioner Data Banks, says the agency is misinterpreting the law. (Read more)

Rural America as rural Americans saw it, 1940-42

Montana shepherd, horse and dog

We have all seen old issues of Life magazine from the early 1940s, almost always showing America in black, white and shades of gray. There was color photography back then, but it was relatively expensive to print, so it was rarely seen. But many color pictures of rural America were taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information, many showing "the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations," The Denver Post says in displaying the photographs and captions, which belong to the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit, "Bound for Glory: America in Color." For the whole set presented by the Post, click here.

Homesteaders, New Mexico

Corn planting, East Tennessee

Depot and starch factory, Maine

Chopping cotton on rented land, Georgia

Wild horse removal, birth control slated

The Bureau of Land Management "plans to remove more than 6,000 horses from federal land and administer birth control to roughly 2,000 more in an effort to protect rangelands and reduce future herd growth," Phil Taylor of Environment & Energy News reports.

The 16 roundups in Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming "will emphasize the use of birth control to reduce the need for future removals, which saddle the agency with the long-term costs of caring for the horses in corrals," Taylor writes. "Techniques will include injecting mares with the fertility vaccine PZP before the spring birthing season, increasing the male-to-female ratios of some herds and gelding some studs to prevent them from impregnating mares."

BLM estimates that bout 33,000 horses and 5,500 burros are on rangelands in 10 states that can support about 26,600 animals. "The plan drew fire from the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, a coalition of 40 groups that is calling for a halt to roundups and for BLM to allow more horses on the range," Taylor reports. (Subscription required)

Why won't more Americans harvest crops?

The New York Times this week asks the question: What happened to the American work ethic? The question and resulting debate is a follow-up to recent stories about American farmers' inability to find local workers for harvesting jobs usually occupied by migrant workers from Mexico who enter the country legally through the agricultural visa program, H-2A. (Times photo by Matthew Staver: Jose Luis harvests onions in John Harold's onion field near Olathe, Colo.)

In the introduction to the debate, it's reasoned that many unemployed Americans would rather collect unemployment benefits than take a temporary job "that they cannot or will not do, for whatever reason." One debater, Tom Lutz, author of Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers and Bums, doesn't necessarily think unemployment benefits makes one lazy. He argues that these benefits would provide more money to an unemployed worker while they attempt to "get back on their feet," and that working for cheap on a farm could prevent them from receiving those benefits.

The other debaters discuss different factors that keep Americans out of the fields. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead of the Institute for American Values writes that Americans' work ethic is as strong as ever, it's just that the work we do now -- sitting behind desks flexing minds rather than muscles -- is making us "softer." Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, says wages and benefits have a direct correlation to effort and enthusiasm. Nicolette Niman, a lawyer and livestock rancher, blames the lack of work ethic on the perception that agriculture is increasingly mechanized: "The farmer’s hands, knowledge and husbandry have been replaced by machines, capital goods, pharmaceuticals and fossil fuels, used directly (to power farm equipment) and indirectly (to manufacture chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides)." Philip Martin, a labor economist, also engages in the "man vs. machine" debate. (Read more)

Editors, current and retired, talk about how to publish good newspapers in a time of stress

The American Society of News Editors is holding a pilot program called "Leadership Live for Executive Editors" at the University of Kentucky today. ASNE is primarily an organization of editors at metropolitan daily papers, but such papers are becoming more like community newspapers in some ways and some of the discussion topics are likely to be relevant to editors and other journalists at papers of any size, including rural ones, so we are live-blogging it.

L-R: Davis, Stewart, Carroll, Manassah
(Jean Pitcock photo)

The separation between the news and business sides has always been less at smaller papers, and is becoming less as larger papers become smaller and more stressed. During a discussion of tension between news and advertising departments, Mizell Stewart III, editor of the Evansville Courier & Press and chair of the ASNE Leadership Development Committee, said, "One of the most important elements of local news is recognition," and the ad department is "a conduit for business news."

Stewart's paper is owned by E.W. Scripps Co., which has perhaps the strongest degree of separation between news and business operations of any major newspaper company, so much that he does not even report to his publisher, who is considered the paper's chief revenue officer.

The first question from moderator Linda Grist Cunningham (vice chair of the ASNE Leadership Development Committee and retired editor of the Rockford Register Star) was "How do you explain to bosses and peers why the First Amendment is important, and understand the cost in time and resources involved in producing strong news reports?"

"One of the keys is investing time and building the relationship," earning credibility, said Ed Manassah, retired publisher of The Courier-Journal and executive director of the Institute for Media, Culture and Ethics at Bellarmine University in Louisville. He said he was lucky as an editor and publisher to have had primarily former editors as his bosses.

However, "The background of people who are making decisions have changed," said John Carroll, former editor of the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun and the Lexington Herald-Leader. "You don't have people like that running companies any more." Instead, he said, you have business-school graduates types who say they can only serve one master, the shareholder, as opposed to the reader. He said a "very useful precondition" is a presumption of good faith between the editor and publisher.

Asked how editors should convey the value of First Amendment principles to other departments, Carroll said, "You can't do it in a preachy way. You make friends with these people .. it always helps to show you understand their problem." He said an editor can be a minority of one in a meeting room "where people see newsroom as a cost center," so it is "important to have a relationship with the publisher and an understanding that newsrooms are diferemt, that it's not like any other department."

Herald-Leader Editor Peter Baniak said editors should "talk about news all the time" among their fellow executives. He said he goes to publisher or another executive team member at least once a day to talk about a story the newsroom is working on "so that all the conversations just aren't about revenue and finances." That can be the best part of a publisher's day, he said.

Retired Herald-Leader editor and publisher Tim Kelly said it's helpful for editors to bring ideas to other departments, something he said Baniak has done successfully. Baniak said, "There's nothing wrong with proposing an idea that will make money. . ..  You've got to fight against that compartmentalization."

There will be times when an editor has to take a n stand and be willing to  fall on his or her sword. Stewart said he has left positions where resources became inadequate. "If  I can't serve the community with the resources I think are needed for the community to be served, then let someone else come in and do it," he said. Earlier, he acknowledged that papers are "under a great deal of stress" because "we are not pulling in the kind of revenue" that will give readers "the level of journalism they've come to expect."

Kakie Urch, professor of new media at the university's School of Journalism and Telecommunications and a former Gannett and Scripps editor, said it's important for editors to keep up with new technological developments that can create new ways to connect with readers: "Watch the tech news and really figure out what it means for you."

The panelists agreed that newspapers are competing for readers' time. "The publisher is not our enemy; time is our enemy," said Michael Davis, executive editor of the Lafayette Journal & Courier, a Gannett Co. Inc. paper in Indiana. In the newsroom, he said, it's important that employees feel "safe and appreciated."

And what about the future? Will newspapers survive? Carroll said, "What concerns me is the shattered economics of journalism, which has left to widespread layoffs and "fewer people turning over the rocks," but "I'm encouraged by the fact newspapers have held on and are still publishing . . . extremely valuable stuff. We're edging toward an equilibrium."

Manassah was even more optimistic, saying readers will continue to invest in the brains that are at newspapers, and the papers will give readers what they want. "We won't see 30-part series anymore," he said. "I don't think that's what held readers."

For ASNE's report on the session, with reactions of viewers, click here.

Natural gas industry talks how to make nice

The natural-gas industry is trying to improve its image in the wake of protests and voiced concerns from officials and other residents in the Eastern U.S. concerned that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been labeled as an environmental hazard. Last week, at a conference titled "Commitment to Excellence in Hydraulic Fracturing," the American Petroleum Institute and other industry groups to discussed how best to "court communities" that are new to drilling.

The industry is also burnishing its image through television commercials and magazine advertisements. Companies such as Exxon Mobil tout the industry's "rethinking" of gas drilling, the abundance of the resource and how clean it burns. Chesapeake Energy has partnered with Goodwill Industries to show how they are investing in local communities. Others attempt to show the softer side of gas drilling. And the American Natural Gas Association highlights how the industry could create American energy independence.

Mike Soraghan of Energy & Environment News reports on topics discussed at the conference in Pittsburgh, which included ways to prevent trucks from stopping up rural traffic, recycling wastewater, "basic housekeeping" of well pads and how to best explain to people that drilling occurs more than a mile below drinking water supplies. One API official talked about how companies have to get a "social license to operate" in rural communities now rife with gas drilling prospects.

Soraghan notes few environmental-group representatives attended, and those who were are skeptical that the words spoken by industry representatives will translate into actions. There's also concern the ideas discussed won't translate well to those actually working on the well pads. Soraghan reports that one engineer at the conference said the good practices presented at the conference were about more than "warm feelings and good publicity." The engineer said: "If everyone's comfortable with it, you can get your permits through faster. . . . We don't get pushback from management if (environmental protections) are really protective." (Read more)

Rural telecoms fear FCC plan to pay for broadband expansion could put them out of business

Some rural telecommunications providers worry about a newly proposed Federal Communications Commission initiative to overhaul an $8 billion subsidy program for land-line telephone services to fund expansion of broadband. The Universal Service Fund now supports phone services to schools, libraries, the poor and high-cost areas, and is financed by long-distance phone call charges paid to local carriers. It also subsidizes smaller telecommunications companies that provide services in rural areas.

Todd Shields of Bloomberg Businessweek reports that rural telecoms wonder if the new FCC plan will strengthen or weaken their networks. Jeffrey Silva of Medley Global Advisors in Washington told Shields that rural carriers face the greatest risk from the reforms, so their inclusion in the process is essential to passage. David Mitchell, an economic researcher at Missouri State University, told Shields that big outfits like AT&T and Verizon would be "the winners" under the plan because they would absorb small carriers that would not be able to afford the changes necessary to become broadband providers.

An estimated 14 to 24 million people don't have high-speed Internet access. Shields reports that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wants to increase access from 65 percent to 90 percent because "broadband has gone from being a luxury to a necessity for full participation in our economy and society." The subsidy program overhaul would decrease fees paid to connect long-distance calls, which Genachowski said would reduce costs for rural phone service. A group of telephone companies led by AT&T asked the FCC in July to reduce these costs; the proposals will be brought before the FCC Oct. 27. (Read more)

Hospital closings leave millions farther from trauma care, and thus more at risk

Millions of Americans are farther away from trauma care than they were 20 years ago, with some having to travel more than 30 minutes to get treatment. Experts say getting help within the first hour is crucial.

A study published in the journal Health Affairs found the distance to a trauma center "increased for 69 million people between 2001 and 2007," reports the Daily Yonder, the national online rural journal. The average amount of travel time was 10 minutes. But for 16 million people, the amount of time it took to travel to a trauma center increased by 30 minutes or more.

"The greatest impact from diminished access has been on people in rural communities," as well areas with a high percentage of African-American residents, low-income people and those without health insurance, The Associated Press reported.

The reason for the increased travel times is due to facilities closing. In 1990, there were 1,125 trauma centers in the country. By 2005, nearly 340 of them had closed, in most cases because of financial hardship; they were treating too high a percentage of people who do not have insurance, the Yonder reports.

President Obama's recent call to cut Medicare premiums to critical access hospitals, as well as close CAHs that are within 10 miles of each other, would further burden rural areas, said a panel of experts in Lexington, Ky., last week.

Medical experts say a trauma patient has the highest change at survival if treated within the first hour. "We're not saying that we should build a trauma center on every street corner," said Dr. Renee Hsia, lead researcher on the study. "But we do have evidence that access for certain populations is already pretty bad, and it's getting worse." (Read more)

Northwest Missouri newspaper spotlights problems in mental health care in rural areas

Lack of resources keep many rural residents from getting mental and emotional health care, With higher rates of depression and suicide among teenagers and older adults in rural America, this is a major concern, reports Debbie Morello of the Maryville Daily Forum in northwest Missouri, noting that this is National Mental Illness Awareness Week. Monday, Oct. 10, is World Mental Health Day.

"There are people without means to get help, they have no money, no transportation and very few resources," Phil Graham, a psychologist with a part-time office in Maryville, told Morello, referring to the disparity between urban and rural availability of mental-health care. Lack of affordable insurance is another problem, as many private insurers have failed to keep up with mental health needs, Graham added.

Depression rates in rural areas tend to exceed rates in urban areas and suicide rates for teens and older adults are higher in rural areas, according to the Office of Rural Health Policy, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Read more)

Judge tells Wisconsin family it doesn't have 'fundamental right' to drink milk from its own cow

A Wisconsin judge has ruled that a family with a cow does not have "a fundamental right" to drink its milk. Circuit Judge Patrick Fielder in August ruled that Mark and Petra Zinniker could not sell raw milk through their private farm store. With the help of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, they asked for a clarification notice, which "contains a strongly-worded denial of fundamental food and farming rights,"Rebekah Wilce of The Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch reports.

In his decision, Fielder wrote: "Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to own and use a dairy cow or a dairy herd; Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to consume the milk from their own cow; Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to board their cow at the farm of a farmer. . . . Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice." Fielder, who is planning to leave the bench, said he based his decision on the fact that the Zinnikers could not present a well-developed reason that consuming food of one's choice is a fundamental right granted by the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling is being appealed. Pete Kennedy of the defense fund reports that raw-milk advocate Max Kane is leading a campaign to have the Wisconsin Judicial Commission investigate the judge's ruling. Kane's Raw Milk Party is again attempting to get the Wisconsin legislature to pass a bill to allow farmers to sell raw milk directly to consumers.

Thieves steal a rural bridge in Pennsylvania

Scrap metal thefts are not new to rural areas, but stealing an entire bridge may be. Pennsylvania State Police say a bridge 50 feet long and 20 feet wide bridge was dismantled and stolen in a remote wooded area of the rural North Beaver Township in Lawrence County between Sept. 27 and Oct. 5. Authorities believe a blowtorch was used to dismantle the bridge, which containing steel web decking and I-beam supports.

The bridge, owned by New Castle Development, was infrequently used by a business to transport materials, a company spokesman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The bridge was about 100 years old and valued at close to $100,000. New Castle had recently closed the private bridge following several copper thefts in the area. (Read more) 

Judge says EPA lacks authority to impose stricter rules on strip mines, but leaves rules in place

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have authority under the Clean Water Act to establish stricter standards for mountaintop removal coal mines, giving the coal industry a first-round win in what is likely to be an extended court fight. The ruling allows the agency's new guidelines to reduce water pollution from surface mining to remain in place, at least until legal arguments about that are heard next June.

"EPA retains legal authority to veto or block key Clean Water Act permits that mining companies need for new mountaintop removal operations,"Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports.

In his ruling, District Judge Reggie Walton of Washington, D.C., said the agency "exceeded its Clean Water Act authority" by creating the new reviewing process for "dredge-and-fill" permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers and by creating an assessment procedure to decide which mining permits needed more review. Walton said the EPA has an "oversight role" but went too far.

When the EPA started issuing new permit reviews last year, the National Mining Association, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the governors of Kentucky and West Virginia filed a joint lawsuit to challenge the EPA's decision, claiming the agency had started a "war on coal." While the industry uses mountaintop removal because it's efficient and local and state leaders tout the jobs it creates, there is growing consensus the practice causes irreversible damage to forests, water quality and communities, and that a recent scientific study links higher rates of cancer, birth defects and other illnesses to those living near mountaintop removal sites, Ward reports.

EPA called the ruling a "procedural decision," and environmental groups that intervened in the case said it has "no effect on the new EPA water quality guidance." NMA President Hal Quinn told Ward the decision "affirms our view that the Congress did not grant EPA sweeping powers under the Clean Water Act" to delay permits and "usurp" the Army Corps of Engineers, which issues permits for discharges into waters of the United States. (Read more)

Big rural broadband provider with big federal loan falls flat

Open Range Communications, which was created to provide broadband to rural areas and received one of the largest loans ever made by the Department of Agriculture, "laid off over half its workforce and accepted its CEO's resignation, moves that put yet another hold on extending broadband services nationwide," Sandy Fitzgerald of Mobiledia reports.

The company operates in nearly 150 markets in 12 states. It "will continue providing WiMax service to existing customers but isn't accepting any new ones," Fitzgerald writes. The company "struggled to attract customers with its data-only WiMax service, marking about 20,000 subscribers earlier this year." The company "is reportedly up for sale" and has not said how it will repay "nearly $300 million from the Rural Utilites Service" of USDA, Fitzgerald reports.

Ala. immigration law chasing needed workers from state, and locals don't fill jobs left behind

"Alabama's strict new immigration law was touted as a job creation bill, a way to force illegal workers out of jobs and open them up for legal residents. Early indications are the plan is backfiring," Phillip Rawls of The Associated Press reports.

"The law is driving away many construction workers, roofers and field hands who do backbreaking jobs Americans generally won't. So far, few legal residents have stepped in to fill any of the vacancies, creating an absence that will surely deal a blow to the state's economy and could slow the rebuilding of Tuscaloosa and other tornado-damaged cities." (Read more)

Meanwhile, the law is making Hispanic students vanish from Alabama schools, AP's Jay Reeves reports.

Update Oct. 10: John McMillan, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, suggests the state's worker release program for inmates may be a short-term solution to replace fleeing Hispanic migrant workers, Mackenzie Weinger of Politico reports.

Plant scientist has spent his life breeding pawpaws to make them more commercial

For decades people have tried to cultivate commercial pawpaws, but found it difficult because the fruit's season is short, its soft skin makes it hard to transport and it has a large seed pod. But now, a plant scientist who's worked 35 years to breed the perfect pawpaw has developed a way to make them bigger with more flesh, making them more attractive to buyers. (Blossom Nursery photo)

Neil Petersen tells National Public Radio's Allison Aubrey that after tasting his first pawpaw 35 years ago, he had a "revelation" that the wild fruit found mostly in the Eastern U.S. was just as good as a peach or apple and should be bred and commercialized in a similar way. Shortly after this experience, he began his life's dedication to the pawpaw, and now several orchards are growing his trees and selling his version of the fruit in farmer's markets.

Bringing even more attention to the pawpaw as a commercial fruit is Ohio University food scientist Rob Brannan. Aubrey reports that Brannan has studied the nutrients in pawpaws and published a study concluding the fruit is high in antioxidants, making it comparable to cranberries and cherries by this measure. He told Aubrey that putting a "health halo" over the pawpaw would give it a commercial boost. (Read more)

Farmers say local harvest workers hard to find

Farmers are having trouble finding willing Americans to help harvest on their farms through the agricultural visa program known as H-2A. The program allows workers from Mexico to enter the country seasonally to work and fill the gaps made because Americans who are willing to work on a farm are hard to find.

Kirk Johnson of The New York Times reports that the minimum wage in the program has risen to $10.50 an hour and because of that and the stagnant economy farmers can't afford to bring in enough people from Mexico to harvest. Some, like Colorado corn and onion farmer John Harold, thought they'd hire locals. However, he told Johnson that after six hours work in one day, most of the locals quit. Some left during lunch and never came back, others claimed the "work was too hard."

The H-2A program was designed to encourage farmers to hire locals as a way to avoid displacing them, and requires them to advertise their job openings in three states. Johnson reports this places great risk on farmers who have to guess the proper local-to-foreign worker ratio with their whole season's revenue at stake. Most think the program needs to be reconsidered to address this issue, including Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, who supports a bill that would increase the number of guest workers admitted to the country every year.

Farmers are also faced with the problem of workers leaving if they find a job that pays better, some say, because working on a farm full-time but only for a season is a lot to ask. In 2009, 60,000 foreign workers were admitted to the country; last year, that number dropped to 56,000. (Read more)

Hallmark Cards boss says Saturday mail delivery should be preserved, for sake of rural areas

The boss of Hallmark Cards Inc. has written an opinion piece urging Congress and the U.S. Postal Service to shelve plans to end Saturday mail delivery, and to address the federally chartered corporation's budget problems by first tackling its "significant underlying organizational and operational issues."

"Cuts in delivery service should be last on the list of considerations," Donald Hall Jr. writes. "The dual strategy of raising rates while cutting Saturday delivery is no way to sustain customer loyalty or encourage use of mail. It also overlooks the dependence many — including small businesses and rural customers — have on six-day delivery."

Hall notes that the Postal Regulatory Commission said that the USPS estimate of savings by ending Saturday delivery was about double the what the commission estimated, and found that "Customers in rural and remote areas would be especially hard hit because their mail delivery would take longer, and that small businesses and other first-class mail customers who depend on timely delivery would be affected far more than bulk mailers." The commission advised USPS that it should not eliminate Saturday mail without more research of the rural impact, essentially endorsing the testimony that the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues gave the commission.

Hall concluded, "The solution to the financial crisis will not be found in failing to adequately serve small towns in remote areas. " His article is available here from the National Newspaper Association, the lobby for community newspapers, which offers it as an editorial.

Meanwhile, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., a member of the deficit-reduction "super committee," has introduced legislation to ban USPS from closing rural post offices if they are at least 10 miles from another office, The Hill reports.

White House Rural Council's report lists problems, but leaves out ways to solve them

The results of the White House Rural Council's visits to rural America this summer are in, so to speak. The Daily Yonder has sifted through the council's recently released report about these visits, and didn't have to use a fine-toothed comb to notice what the report lacked. (White House map shows visit locations)

Since President Obama created the council in June, members have traveled the country visiting rural communities and conducting a series of "roundtable discussions." As its co-chair, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, wrote at the start of the report: "Through these visits, the Council has been listening to the voice of rural Americans – to their concerns and aspirations, to what they see as the challenges that lay ahead and the opportunities open to them."

The report is based on those discussions and the President's rural tour to Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota in August. The Yonder could not find in the report a single conclusion drawn from some 200 visits made in 46 states (Hawaii, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island did not receive a visit). The report does, however, include a pie chart illustrating top issues discussed during the roundtables: Education leads the list, followed closely by government programs and regulations. The report is also littered with lists: issues discussed, departmental references and every place visited, highlighting the President's visit to Peosta, Iowa. But as the Yonder points out, there is no list of policy changes or initiatives to remedy the problems facing rural Americans. (Read more)

Dove hunting returns to Iowa, with lead shot

Sept. 1 marked the first time since 1918 that hunters can legally hunt mourning doves in Iowa. This legislation could lure "an estimated 20,000 Iowa dove hunters" and possibly "contribute $6.9 million to the state's economy," according to Iowa's Natural Resource Commission. Based on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's annual mourning dove harvest report for similar states, the National Resource Commission estimates dove season could bring $462,000 in state sales tax revenue and 90 jobs to the state, Elizabeth Weise and Adam Belz of USA Today report. (Iowa Natural Resource Commission image)

The reinstatement of dove hunting was not without controversy. A legislative committee removed a request by the commission to include a lead-ammunition ban for this year's season, electing to consider the ban next session, Weise and Belz report. Currently 35 states have some regulations against lead ammunition and 27 Iowa counties require non-toxic ammunition when hunting migratory game birds and some other game or target shooting. (Read more)

Senator blocks fast action on pipeline safety bill by refusing to allow passage without debate

UPDATE, Oct. 19: Paul dropped his hold on the bill after getting agreement to "an amendment that would commit the government to requiring pressure tests or something equally effective on older lines," Jaxon Van Derbeken of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is singlehandedly blocking quick passage of legislation to improve safety of the 2.5 million miles of oil, gas and hazardous waste pipelines that crisscross the country. Democrats want to expedite the bill so they can work on job creation. Paul says more time should be given to debate new rules in the bill. Since expedited passage requires unanimous consent, Paul's stance is preventing the bill from moving. (AP photo)

The New York Times reported recently that pipeline regulators give short shrift to rural areas. Jim Carroll, Washington correspondent for The Courier-Journal of Louisville, reports the reauthorization bill includes new safety measures prompted by several pipeline accidents, like one in San Bruno, Calif., last year that killed eight people. About 40 pipeline accidents have occurred every year since 2006, causing injuries and fatalities. Paul says the new bill "puts in place new mandates," "hires new bureaucrats" and "grandfathers in the very pipelines that have had recent problems." He said the bill will not truly address issues that hinder pipeline safety. Carroll reports it's not the first time Paul has slowed legislation by himself; he held up provision extensions in the Patriot Act earlier this year and on Monday, blocked a bill that would provide millions in benefits to elderly and disabled refugees.

The bill was unanimously approved by a Senate committee and has the support of three national oil and gas associations, and some associations in Kentucky, Paul's home state. While Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky supports Paul's exercise of his right to request debate, several senators are pressing Paul to stop blocking the bill. Paul told Carroll the Democrats are impeding the bill's progress because they won't allow an open discussion and a vote, even though they would likely get more than the 60-vote majority to move the bill out of the Senate. (Read more)

Burdens of new laws for photo IDs at polls could fall heaviest on rural voters

"New laws requiring voters to show a photo identification at the polls could have a disproportionate effect on rural voters," the Daily Yonder says, referring to a New York Times story about new laws in 14 states and a column by Tennessee state Sen. Roy Herron that bemoaned the hardship he says will be caused by a new law in the Volunteer State, using his 94-year-old mother as an example:

"My mother is one of 675,337 Tennesseans age 18 and older who, according to the Department of Safety, either have no driver's license or have a license that does not carry their photo," and his mother's birth certificate has been misplaced so she will have to go through rigamarole and expense to get one before she can get a photo ID, writes Herron, a Democrat from Dresden.

And because not all counties have a drivers' license office, "Some of the rural Tennesseans I represent will have to drive from their county through a second county and into a third to reach the closest driver's license center — a trip of 40 to 60 miles each way. Taking a day off work and with gas averaging $3.58 a gallon, even at minimum wage the expense of travel and lost wages will cost people perhaps an additional $80 to $100 to exercise their constitutional right to vote." (Read more)

Before this year, only two states had photo-ID laws. A Brennan Center for Justice study indicates that the new laws will make it harder for rural, poor, elderly and minority voters to cast ballots next year. the researchers estimate that 5 million voters will be negatively affected. Democrats fear the laws will discourage, or block many voters, especially those in groups that vote mostly Democratic, from voting. The overall impact is still in dispute, and Republicans say laws are necessary to prevent voter fraud, but examples of voter impersonation are hard to find the Times' Michael Cooper reports. The Brennan Center says impersonation fraud at polling places is "extremely rare."

Rural poverty grows, but rural use of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program stays low

A recent policy brief out of the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute focuses on challenges faced by rural families who get cash assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Authors Jessica Bean, Leif Jensen and Marybeth Mattingly found that even though rural poverty continues to grow, TANF usage in rural areas remains low.

The authors contend that while cash assistance from TANF helps low-income families, it does nothing to end poverty because the benefits do not meet the need and will do little to help families overcome the "poverty threshold." They say that the positive effects of TANF are not as common in rural areas, and that positive impacts that do happen in rural communities continue to decline with time. From the brief: "TANF is an important component of poor families' budgets. However, in its current form, it is insufficient; strengthening TANF would help alleviate some material hardship in the lives of America's neediest citizens."

The authors write that the upcoming reauthorization of the program offers an opportunity to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. They suggest that America's rural poor should not be forgotten in the process and that differences in positive impacts of the program between rural and urban poor should be acknowledged. They also write that TANF emergency and contingency funds should be re-established and the supplemental grants reconsidered.

Farms blamed for nitrate pollution in California

Nitrates are contaminating tap water in the San Joaquin Valley and farmers are being blamed. As the nation's largest dairy county, Tulare County generates more untreated animal waste than all the people in Los Angeles, the regional director of the San Francisco-based nonprofit advocacy group, Food & Water Watch told Mark Grossi of McClatchy Newspapers for a package of stories on the problem.

Thomas Harter, leading groundwater scientist at the University of California at Davis, believes nitrates may come from animal manure, but also suggests fertilizers as a contributor. Farmers are being blamed with no proof, Tulare County Supervisor Allen Ishida, a longtime citrus grower near Lindsay, told Grossi. "If it's my fertilizers that are causing this problem, then we'll adapt," Ishida said, welcoming a full investigation of nitrate sources.

California has regulations in place to prevent overloading the soil and crops with waste and Tulare County regulates the placement of dairies, Grossi reports. With only nine state inspectors overseeing 1,400 dairies in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys many dairy owners inspect and report on their own operations, making many activists question adequate enforcement of these rules. (Read more)

Trees decrease fossil fuel emissions, but massive die-offs could add to climate change

Some scientists now think massive forest die-offs as a result of climate change could effect the "future habitability of the earth" because people depend on forests to absorb carbon dioxide now more than ever whether they realize it or not. Justin Gillis of The New York Times reports that scientists have discovered that forests have been absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, an amount equal to the emissions from all the world's cars and trucks. If a large amount of forests die, scientists warn, trees could burn or decay and release stored carbon into the atmosphere, adding to the warming of the planet. (NYT photo: dying pine forest in Montana)

Scientists are trying several strategies to help save forests, Gillis reports. They've suggested that counties with more wealth should pay people in tropical areas to stop destruction of forests for agriculture and logging. Another plan is to thin out forests in the American West to prevent the spread of parasites and fires. Both ideas are stalling due to lack of funding. Tropical forest researcher Oliver Phillips told Gillis, “I think we have a situation where both the ‘forces of growth’ and the ‘forces of death’ are strengthening, and have been for some time. The latter are more eye-catching, but the former have in fact been more important so far.” To see an interactive map showing forest decline around the world, click here.

Even though many are predicting gloom and doom, Gillis reports that scientists also say the "point of no return" has not yet been reached and that many forests, like those in the Eastern U.S., are still sucking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Since CO2 is a major source of food for trees, some forests have seen an increase in growth, and a new study published in Science magazine says worldwide forests store a billion tons of carbon per year in wood. Scientists also acknowledge their predictions are crude; some predict the death of the Amazon forest, while others think forests will continue to be massive carbon-dioxide eaters through this century. (Read more)

Federal grant funds two-year study aimed at helping Appalachian Ky. development groups

A multidisciplinary team of University of Kentucky researchers will examine local economic development organizations in Appalachian Kentucky for two years to help them "work together to identify new pathways toward local and regional prosperity," a UK news release says.

Funded by a $485,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, the study will cover the 54 Kentucky counties classified as "Appalachian" by Congress for service from the Appalachian Regional Commission. The counties include "a few hundred economic development organizations," ranging from entirely governmental to civic groups to nonprofits to entirely private entities.

The study's principal investigator is Wally Ferrier, an endowed associate professor of strategic management in UK's Gatton College of Business and Economics. The co-PIs are Evelyn Knight, a professor in the College of Public Health and former director of UK's Appalachian Center, and Steve Borgatti, an endowed chair of management in the college an internationally recognized researcher of business networks "We are particularly interested in how EDOs can collaborate with each other to help them derive the maximum from their operations," Borgatti said. Other researchers on the project represent the colleges of education and social work, the Department of Sociology and the Department of Community and Leadership Development in the College of Agriculture.

"Throughout the duration of the study the research team is committed to building a set of enduring partnerships between members of the Appalachian economic development community and the university," the release says. "At the study's end, the researchers hope to develop a series of conferences, webinars, and workshops where they can share their research findings in a way that is relevant, timely, and actionable." (Read more)

Alabama paper starts online radio station

The Choctaw Sun-Advocate in southwest Alabama has started on online radio station, and it has been so successful so quickly that advertising sales have already paid for the equipment, uploading expenses and licensing fees, Publisher Tommy Campbell told AlaPressa, the monthly newsletter of the Alabama Press Association.

"We've already sold more than $6,000 in ads and sponsor fees," Campbell said in late August, about a week after the launch. By mid-September, Ala Pressa reports, the station "had already drawn listeners from 37 foreign countries and 40 states, he said. . . . The station plays classic rock from the 5,000 songs Campbell has downloaded from iTunes, and it plays a variety of Christian music and church programming on Sundays. It also features local and state news and weather, calendar of events, online classified ads, public affairs programming, local obituaries and more," including warnings of severe weather.

"I definitely think it's something that smaller papers could benefit from," Campbell told AlaPressa, which reports, "Listeners who don't want to go through a computer can buy an Internet radio receiver for less than $80." The station is at www.live365.com/stations/sunliteonline.

USDA-Ford Foundation conference is focusing on creating rural wealth and livelihoods; join in online

The Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Ford Foundation are hosting a National Conference on Rural Wealth Creation and Livelihoods in Washington, D.C. The attendees include more than 170 rural development specialists, policymakers, researchers and other stakeholders from all regions of America, such as Lionel "Bo" Beaulieu, above, director of the Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University.

From a press release about the event: "Fostering wealth creation that leads to improved livelihoods in rural America is a top priority for USDA and for many regional, state and local research and development initiatives." Throughout the conference, participants and speakers will attempt answer such questions as: What do "wealth" and "wealth creation" mean? What works, where, and why - or why not - to promote wealth creation that improves rural livelihoods? How can regional policies and programs contribute to wealth creation that sticks in rural areas? How can we measure rural wealth creation progress, maintenance and outcomes? Organizers also hope the conference will develop "practical, results-relevant dialogue" to initiate action in communities around rural wealth creation and livelihoods.

The event runs through Wednesday and is by invitation, but organizers are sharing information and discussions on the conference networking site, which features conference presentations, dialogue highlights, blogs and opportunities for comments and questions here or at http://ruralwealth.org.

Some states cut, cap local government funding

As a way to balance budgets in a down economy, several states have cut direct funding for local governments in the past several years, leaving local officials searching for ways to balance their own budgets without millions of dollars on which they've previously depended. Rob Gurwitt reports for Stateline that some states have capped local property taxes, limiting the amount of money cities, counties and towns can raise.

In some cases, lack of funding has forced local government officials to lay off up to 10 percent of their employees, cut police forces, stop paying firefighters overtime and try to get hospitals to take on ambulance services, Gurwitt reports. Other local officials have closed down parks and recreation departments, libraries and public works. Some have raised taxes and fees; Lincoln, Neb., has imposed a "wheel tax" on every vehicle in the city. To see an infographic detailing what funds have been cut from several states, click here.

Local government funds of $665 million were cut in Ohio by a quarter this year; next year, the funds will be cut to half. Gurwitt reports that this move is expected to save the state $400 to $500 million. Nebraska's state government completely cut funds for counties and cities, and Michigan's government has cut local funds by $5 billion since 2000. State governments are not willing to share revenue in these tough economic times, Gurwitt reports, but cutting local government funding is a risk for state governments since most of the state's revenue is made in areas that benefit from local funds. (Read more)

Rural unemployment rate below national average but not in far West or rural South

In August 2011, the rural unemployment rate, 8.8 percent, was below the national average of 9.08 percent and the urban average, 9.2 percent, Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder reports. More than six out of ten rural counties reported  rates below the national average.

Most with low rates were in the Mountain West, the Upper Midwest or New England. The rural South and the West Coast again had the highest rates. To see unemployment rates for urban, rural and exurban areas of your state, click here.

Lower unemployment rates in the Great Plains and other areas may be attributed to migration, Bishop reports: "Fewer people, fewer to be unemployed." Likewise, high unemployment rates in the Sun Belt may be a result of relocations to the area. (Read more)

High-on-the-hog prices spur rash of big pig thefts in Upper Midwest; farmers seek answers, security

As farmers enjoy record-high prices for hogs, pig thefts are on the rise in Minnesota, Iowa, and nearby pork-producing states. The dismal economy, pig-farm isolation and difficultly in tracing pigs may be contributing factors to the rise in pig thefts, Monica Davey of The New York Times reports. (NYT photo by Allen Brisson-Smith)

In the past, farmers might have had one or two pigs go missing, "but now, it's different. This isn't about putting food on the table," Ryan Bode of Rebco Pork, who had 150 pigs taken, told Davey. Investigators suspect the pig thieves unloaded the pigs at meat-processing plants, affiliated "drop-off" facilities or sold them at auction, Davey reports. Marc Chadderdon, an investigator for the Nicollet County Sheriff's office, believes "someone in the business somewhere has the answer as to who's doing this."

Bode's family company, which raises 60,000 pigs per year in eight buildings, said only after intense investigation were they able to find how the pig thieves entered. "They definitely did their homework. And they definitely knew what they were doing," he told Davey. The rise in pig thefts has many farmers considering adding more security to the isolated barns, or tattooing their animals. (Read more)

Gallup finds confidence in local officials steady

Americans are very unhappy with Congress, and to a lesser degree with President Obama, but have much more confidence in their local and state officials' ability to handle local and state problems, according to the latest Gallup Poll, conducted Sept. 8-11.

"Trust and confidence in local government has hovered around 70 percent for the past decade, and the recent gridlock at the federal level has done little to sully local impressions of government," writes Tim Mak of Politico. "In fact, 68 percent of respondents to a new Gallup poll on Monday said they had a 'fair' or 'great' deal of trust and confidence in their local governments." State officials scored 57 percent, the federal executive branch 47 percent and Congress 31 percent. (Read more)

Urban-schools advocacy group helping rural N.J. districts' lawsuit to recover state funding

An advocacy group for urban schools is helping 16 rural districts in New Jersey sue the state over cuts in their funding. The Education Law Center says the districts should get "nearly $19 million more than the $131 million they will get in the budget for this school year," Lisa Fleisher reports for The Wall Street Journal.

"They've had to cut teachers, they had to cut programs, they have had their class sizes go way up, they've had to cut bus routes, they've had to privatize staffing like cafeteria workers and bus drivers," Frederick Jacob, a lawyer representing the districts, mostly in southern New Jersey. Their case is based on 31 urban districts' successful challenge, with the center's help, to cuts Gov. Chris Christie made to avoid raising taxes. "Jacob said the rural school districts he represents can't raise taxes to fill in the gaps in funding, because property in town isn't worth enough," Fleisher reports.