Would proposed labor rules limit FFA and 4-H members' farm work to their parents' property?

The U.S. Department of Labor's proposed revisions to child-labor rules have some wondering what will happen to FFA and 4-H programs if children under 16 can no longer work except on farms owned by their parents. Ty Walter, an FFA member and freshman at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyo., told The Fence Post he would hate to see the rules take affect because they may take away the hands-on learning experience for many students.

The proposal would "prohibit child agricultural work with animals, along with pesticides, timber, manure pits and storage bins," Eric Brown writes. "The restrictions would also include barring children younger than 16 from operating most power-driven equipment, and all youth in both agricultural and non-agricultural work from using electronic devices while operating such equipment. Grain elevators and bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards and livestock exchanges and auctions would be off limits to non-agricultural workers younger than 18."
 
Jarrod Bessire, FFA adviser for Briggsdale School, 35 miles northeast of Greeley, Colo., told Brown that if the new rules pass many of his students may not be able to complete their livestock and crop-based projects unless they live on a farm owned only by their parents. "We all agree that kids -- and everyone else, for that matter -- need to be as safe as possible, but we need to make sure we're still providing good experiences for kids, whether it comes through FFA or 4-H, and a good foundation in agriculture," Bessire added. (Read more)

Other opponents of the proposed rules say limiting work to parents' property would ignore the fact that many farms involve grandparents and grandchildren. The comment period for the proposal has been extended to Dec. 1. The next step is for the Labor Department to propose a final version.

On 1st National Rural Health Day, Illinois paper notes clinic in national program to help farmers

Today is the first National Rural Health Day, started "to increase awareness of and showcase the efforts of rural health care providers," writes Steve Eighinger of the Quincy Herald-Whig in Illinois, who interviewed several health-care providers in his Illinois town.

A clinic operated by Blessing Health System of Quincy, the East Adams Clinic in Golden, was the first in the state to join the AgriSafe program, "where staff members are trained to recognize symptoms that are farm-related and are capable of recommending personal protective equipment and education to improve health symptoms," Eighinger reports. (Map shows Agri-Safe locations; click on map for larger version or here for interactive version)

Rick Ruggles of the Omaha World-Herald used the observance as a news peg for a story about farm safety: "Agriculture is one of the most dangerous occupations," he wrote. "Injuries can stem from time pressures and the fact that farmers work in all kinds of weather. They climb onto roofs and they work with electricity. Their injuries may become more serious because farmers often work alone and may not be rescued for hours" (Read more)

New tilllage technique helps create healthier soil

An eco-friendly irrigation technique is helping farmers in Tennessee develop healthy soil, Anne Paine of The Tennessean reports. "Keylining" is a method that cuts into soil and deposits liquid compost in the cuts, which are placed where slopes level out so the cuts can absorb rainwater and be open to beneficial fungi and bacteria. It allows soil to hold more moisture in places where it's needed and is becoming an alternative to chemically feeding crops. (Photo: Keylining machine)

Howard Switzer and Brian Bankston told Paine they use the method because traditional agriculture practices destroy soil. University of Tennessee agriculture expert Don Tyler disagrees. He said the new technique isn't "needed for most soils" in Tennessee because studies show the dirt isn't very compacted. Switzer and Bankston said keylining will make farms more sustainable because they don't have to import or use chemicals. Farmer Justin Sanders says he has already seen results from the practice and he plans to continue it. Arkansas farmer Thomas Post said the technique kept grass green in his fields during extreme drought while pastures around his "burned up."

The Tennessee Agriculture Department told Paine it is unfamiliar with the process, but Switzer said the agency should be made aware because the method has turned barren fields in other countries into places lush with plants. (Read more)

Drilling is regulated by states, and mostly weakly

Only a small number of environmental violations committed by oil and gas drilling companies result in fines, and the enforced fines "often amount to little more than a rounding error for billion-dollar companies," reports Mike Soraghan of Energy & Environment News. His investigation of enforcement data focused on companies operating in drilling hot spots, which are found mostly in rural areas.

"In Texas, 96 percent of 80,000 violations in 2009 resulted in no enforcement action. West Virginia, a state with 56,000 wells, issued 19 penalties last year. And Wyoming, the center of Rocky Mountain energy, collected $15,500 in fines in 2010. Pennsylvania, the most aggressive about fining violators, sought penalties for more than a quarter of the violations found last year. It levied fines for 4 percent of the violations, with the penalties totaling $3.7 million. The largest of those was a $900,000 fine against a drilling company that contaminated the water of 16 homes. That was less than the profit the company makes in three hours." And some states, he writes, don't keep track of enforcement data so no one knows the companies that are repeat violators.

The Energy Information Administration reports that natural-gas drilling grew 50 percent per year from 2006 to 2010. Regulation is left to "a patchwork of state agencies," whose approach, resources and assertiveness are very different from state to state, Soraghan reports. The industry and its regulators tell Congress the agencies are effectively doing their job, and Congress "largely takes them at their word," Soraghan writes. The industry also dismisses suggestions for more regulation. (Read more)

Congress may block new school-lunch rules

Some in Congress are trying to block the Obama administration's call for healthier school lunches proposed by the Department of Agriculture earlier this year. The changes would have limited potato and salt use and increased use of whole grains. New legislation introduced in a spending bill will block or delay those changes, and allow tomato paste on pizza to be considered a vegetable.

Mary Jalonick of The Associated Press reports that "school meals that are subsidized by the federal government must include a certain amount of vegetables, and USDA’s proposal could have pushed pizza-makers and potato growers out of the school lunch business." Conservatives are saying government shouldn't tell kids what to eat and school districts say the proposed changes would put added strain on already tight budgets. Jalonick reports schools follow guidelines on free or reduced lunches for low-income students, but now are upset about the government telling "them exactly what foods they can't serve."

USDA secretary Tom Vilsack said the changes are "necessary to reduce childhood obesity and future health care costs." Spokespeople say USDA will continue to work toward healthier lunches. Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the bill would slow efforts to make pizza more healthy. Since obesity has become the main medical disqualifier for military service, a group of retired generals called Mission:Readiness called the move a national security issue. (Read more)

Tenn. study finds trace amounts of chemicals, drugs and pesticides in water; impact uncertain

A recent study by the University of Tennessee Center for Environmental Biotechnology reveals trace amounts of chemicals that could affect hormonal and immune systems at drinking water intakes of six of 11 facilities tested in the state. Anne Paine of The Tennessean reports the chemicals include insect repellent, ibuprofen, caffeine, detergents, hand-sanitizer antiseptic, hormones and chemical compounds found in plastic.

"Many parts of the country have found the same compounds in waterways, which is no surprise since people excrete pharmacueticals they use and caffeinated beverages they drink and send hair care and laundry products down toilets and drains," Paine writes.

Amounts found in Tennessee did not rise above existing hazard indexes, but only one of the standards, for the herbicide atrazine, is health-based. The study is the first step in a process that could establish standards to protect human health.

Little is known about the potential for drugs and personal-care products to contaminate water, and it is unclear what affect the trace amounts found will have on human health. The amounts were very small, but tiny amounts of certain chemicals can effect hormone and endocrine systems. The researchers found these traces in raw water; none of the few treated-water samples they took contained the chemicals. (Read more)

Wages seem to be main reason Americans won't take jobs vacated by scared, illegal immigrants

Earlier reports suggested Americans are unwilling or unable do manual labor that appeals to immigrants and migrant workers; Bloomberg Businessweek reports the lack of interest from American workers in vacated processing and farming positions may be due to unrealistic employer expectations and an inefficient market.

Chad Smith, owner of an 85-acre tomato farm outside of Birmingham, told Bloomberg he has tried to hire locals but many quit because they cannot "work fast enough to make the money they thought they could make." Does this mean they are not as capable as immigrant and migrant workers? Cedric Rayford, of Gadsden, Ala., who responded to a radio ad for farmhands, does not think so. "They gotta come up with a better pay system," Rayford tells Bloomberg, suggesting farmers move to hourly pay instead of paying per basket picked. Typically farmhands make about $2 per 25-pound basket filled, Elizabeth Dwoskin reports for Bloomberg.

Randy Rhodes, president of Harvest Select, a catfish processing plant in Uniontown, Ala., that processes about 850,000 pounds of fish weekly, lost many of his Guatemalan workforce following the crackdown on illegal immigrants, Dwoskin reports. Rhodes, who's tried to recruit Alabamans, understands why they don't want to slice catfish in a cold, wet room for minimum wage, but he says offering higher wages is not an option. Even as the largest processor of catfish in Alabama, he says he cannot compete with overseas competitors who pay even lower wages. (Read more)

North Dakota oil boom leaves many rural residents at greater risk for traffic accidents

North Dakota is quickly becoming one of the largest oil-producing states, and not without some growing pains for many of the state's rural residents. Among those pains are increases in traffic accidents, rising rents and longer waits for medical care.

Of the state's 17 counties producing oil and gas, two-thirds exceed the state's average for crash risk, according to the Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota State University. The estimated property cost related to traffic crashes has increased from $90.9 million in 2006 to $121.8 million in 2010. The number of large trucks involved in crashes doubled from 2006-2010 and trucks, pickups and vans now make up more than 70 percent of crashes in these counties, The Jamestown Sun reports. To read an NBC News interview with Williston, N.D., Mayor Ward Koeser, who talks more about the traffic impact, click here.

Lois Sinness, an 82 year old resident of one small Oil Patch community, is among those leaving her home because surging rent prices. Sinness' $700-a-month apartment became almost three times that due to the increased demand for housing, James MacPherson reports for The Huffington Post. "We're all on fixed incomes, living mostly on Social Security, so it's been a terrible shock," Sinness told MacPherson.

North Dakota law prohibits rental rate caps, so many low income housing units are now housing oil workers who can pay higher prices, MacPherson reports. With a missile base in the area, the elderly are not the only ones left without affordable housing. Lt. John Nordstrom, a single Air Force officer, experienced a $1,000 a month rent increase for a small house he was renting, MPR News reports.

At Mercy Medical Center in Williston, N.D., emergency room visits have increased 50 percent over the last 12 months creating an average wait time of at least two hours, Blake Ellis of CNN Money reports.

Deficit reduction could hurt many rural hospitals

Medicare payments may be slashed between $6 and $60 billion over the next 10 years as part of proposed spending cuts from Congress. This means, with higher percentages of retirees living in rural areas, rural hospitals may be disproportionately affected, the Center for Rural Affairs reports.

Forty percent of payments to rural critical access hospitals come from Medicare, while only 32 percent of urban facilities' payments come from the program. (Read more) To see the National Rural Health Association's summary of the proposed cuts, click here.

Oklahoma and Kansas towns' struggle tell story of nation's failure to control toxic air pollutants

Earlier this month, we told you about the reporting of NPR and Center for Public Integrity about lack of Clean Air Act enforcement by state and federal regulators. The four-part series chronicles stories from rural places and people struggling with toxic air pollution, and are good examples of how to cover environmental stories.

One part of the series focused on Ponca, Okla., and carbon black, a fine, black powdery substance and potential human carcinogen used to strengthen tires and other rubber products in the Continental Carbon facility, which adjoins a residential community on the outskirts of the town. Through their investigation of the company, reporter Howard Berkes and his colleagues found hundreds of residents in Ponca have faced "a persistent and frustrating struggle" with the company and carbon black. The effects of carbon black can be felt and seen miles away from the town, where the former mayor of Ponca said complaints about playgrounds and cars being tainted black flowed into his office.

Two parts of the series detail the fight by residents of Chanute, Kan., for closer regulations of the nearby Ash Grove cement plant. Though the Kansas regional Environmental Protection Agency administrator says the plant is in compliance, Berkes and crew report "cement kilns are legally allowed to pump more toxins into the air than are hazardous-waste incinerators, which burn many of the same dangerous materials." To read stories from the series, click here.

Washington apple growers latest group feeling burden of illegal immigration crackdown

Many Washington apple growers are posting "pickers wanted" signs (Seattle Times photo by Steve Ringman) to make up for the shortage of immigrant labor they claim is caused by stricter immigration policies in places like Arizona and Alabama. Normally about 70 percent of the the state's farmworkers are in the country illegally, but tougher immigration laws have made many Mexican and other migrant workers stay away, Fox News Latino reports.

Apple growers believe this could have been one of the best years ever until the shortage of workers forced them to leave fruit on trees, Fox reports. Many growers have tried unsuccessfully to fill worker shortages with domestic workers, only to have little success, similar to Alabama farmers.

Jeff Pheasant and Darla Grubb, fourth-generation apple growers near Soap Lake, about 120 miles east of Seattle, told Fox their orchard was two weeks behind: one week because the weather forced a late start this year and the other because they had no pickers. Pheasant Orchards usually has about 65 workers at harvest peak, but this year there were only 50, many of whom were inexperienced. (Read more)

Some Washington growers are relying on inmate labor to collect what remains of their harvests. Prison labor is significantly more expensive costing growers to pay $22 an hour per inmate, a cost of three times that of an experienced picker, Elisa Jaffe of KomoNews reports.

Feds to keep local police funding, but reduce it

Although the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut funding for Community Oriented Policing Services and several other criminal-justice programs that assist rural police, a joint Senate-House committee agreed last night to save COPS and some other programs, reports The Crime Report. Congress is set to approve the appropriations this week, but the programs will receive less funding than last year.

"For many programs, the reductions reflect a trend that could get worse as Congress considers debt-reduction plans," The Crime Report says. Under the agreement, COPS hiring would be cut by $81 million, down to $166 million. Read the full report from the House and Senate appropriations committees here.

Carbon-capture demonstration project hits another snag as a key partner backs out

The leading American effort to capture and store carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants has "hit a stumbling block" that could set back what proponents call "a promising technology for addressing global warming," reports Matthew Wald of The New York Times.

Ameren, the Midwestern power company that agreed to be the host for the Illinois project, "told its partners that because of its financial situation, it cannot take part as promised," Wald reports. The company was going to convert one of its old oil-fired power plants to be used for carbon capture on a commercial scale. Ameren now says it will shut the plant down by the end of the year.

Wald reports that other partners in the venture, known as FutureGen 2.0, could buy the failing plant and convert it, but they would have to do so before the 2015 deadline to use the $1 billion (or 80 percent of the project's cost) promised them by the federal government. This is only the latest in a long string of setbacks for the project, which has been viewed as "the nation’s best hope for taking a worldwide lead in developing ways to capture and bury carbon dioxide," Wald writes.

The first incarnation of the project in 2003 called for building a plant that would turn coal into gas, filter out carbon dioxide and burn hydrogen for power. That plan was killed when the Bush administration shifted focus in 2008. The Obama administration then pumped $1 billion of economic stimulus funds into the program with a different technology: burn coal in oxygen creating almost pure carbon dioxide to pump underground. It's unclear whether or not Congress will give the project an extension because of the current budget environment, and experts on coal-fired emissions say that without government assistance, the private sector is unlikely to invest. (Read more)

A new study finds that volunteering decreases risk of drug abuse among rural teenagers

A recent study at the University of Missouri found that rural teens who participated in pro-social behavior, like volunteering or helping others, are less likely to abuse drugs as young adults, reports Samantha Craven of the MU News Bureau. Gustavo Carlo, Millsap Professor of Diversity in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, examined data from surveys given to rural youth and concluded that things like volunteering "serve as protective factors against adolescents engaging in risky behaviors."

Rural youth were chosen as the focus of the study because "previous research indicates they may be more apt to use illicit substances earlier, putting them at risk for developing addiction problems as adults." It's also more difficult for rural youth to get transportation to volunteer activities because rural communities are more spread out and there also tends to be less "access to recreation centers, spaces for meetings, volunteers to run programs and funding for organized activities" in rural areas. Carlo told Craven: “Many rural communities have suffered from the economic downturn and are unable to offer opportunities for youth activities. Financial stress can also affect the psychological health of parents making them less cognizant of how children spend their time."

Carlo said the research in his study, however, has important implications for substance-abuse prevention and intervention programs for teens. "Pro-social behaviors are good for society and communities, but also they are a marker of moral development," he said. "Parents want their kids to be kind, selfless, considerate and respectful. We now have evidence that these pro-social behaviors make adolescents less likely to break moral codes and engage in illegal activities like getting drink and smoking marijuana."

Farmworkers handling pesticides have less protection than industrial chemical workers

A group of public health advocates, environmental lawyers and labor groups want the Obama administration to protect farm workers who handle pesticides regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency at the same level as those "whose work with industrial chemicals is overseen by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture," Jeremy Jacobs of Energy & Environment News reports.

The rule in question is the Worker Protection Standard under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, which Jacobs reports hasn't been updated since 1992. EPA said it was going to release a proposed update early next year. The coalition of groups wants the agency to make changes to protect farm workers' health, including requiring medical monitoring of workers using pesticides known to affect the nervous system, "closed systems" for mixing and loading pesticides to avoid splashing and spilling and enclosed tractor cabs when pesticides are being sprayed. Medical monitoring of workers and closed mixing systems are already required in California and Washington.

Eve Gartner of Earthjustice told Jacobs that farm workers, most of which are low-income minorities, are treated in a second-class way because their health is not protected by the EPA. "We must speak up for the very people who help to put food on our tables," she said. "Their work is integral to our daily lives and further delay in providing these basic protections is just unacceptable." (Read more)

Deal means Keystone heavy-oil pipeline would be routed away from Sand Hills of Nebraska

Days after the Obama administration said it would delay a decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, an agreement was announced to reroute the line to avoid the Sand Hills region of Nebraska, right. The announcement was made Monday, during a special state legislative session called to consider the issue. TransCanada, the oil company, said it would support state legislation to shift the route.

If approved, the pipeline would carry to the Gulf of Mexico heavy oil produced from Alberta tar sands. The Sand Hills region is environmentally sensitive and overlies the Ogallala Aquifer, the drinking-water source for much of the Great Plains. Daniel Frosch of The New York Times reports the rerouting offer does little to change the State Department's plans to conduct a new environmental review of the changed route. A new review is expected to take over a year and push the final decision into 2013, after the next presidential election.

Though the deal is being hailed as a "win-win," Paul Hammel and Martha Stoddard of the Omaha World-Herald report opponents of the pipeline project question why Nebraska taxpayers will pay for the review by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. Spokeswoman for lobbying group BOLD Nebraska said taxpayers should not have to pay for TransCanada's mistake of trying to cross the Sand Hills. Sen. Mike Flood, a key proponent of the compromise, said "the cost was worth it to protect the state's natural resources and to ensure that a state review would be impartial."

Local police forces have become more militarized since Sept. 11, 2001

American police departments have become increasingly militarized over the past 10 years since the "war on terror" began, report Arthur Rizer and Joseph Hartman of The Atlantic. Local police have purchased military equipment, adopted military training and sought to "inculcate a 'soldier's mentality' among their ranks," and all in the name of fighting terrorism. Rizer and Hartman write that police are tasked with "keeping the peace," but those duties are blurred when they start behaving like soldiers. (Reuters photo by Danny Moloshok)

Before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, military-like Special Weapons and Tactics teams only existed in large cities and were used sparingly. Now, almost every local police force has a SWAT team and employs it for "everyday patrolling" and tasks as small as serving search warrants. "To assist them in deploying this new weaponry," Rizer and Hartman report "police departments have also sought and received extensive military training and tactical instruction," with most members of local SWAT teams being trained by the U.S. special operations commandos.

Former Seattle Police Department chief Norm Stamper writes on AlterNet that the militarization of local police forces is a result of not only increased counterterrorism tactics, but also of the decades-old war on drugs. Stamper writes: "There are more than 50,000 police paramilitary raids in the United States each year – more than 130 every day. Virtually all are for prosecution of drug warrants, the vast majority involving marijuana. Many jurisdictions use SWAT teams for execution of every search warrant for drugs."

Rizer and Hartman report "the most serious consequence of the rapid militarization of American police forces is the subtle evolution in the mentality of the 'men in blue' from 'peace officer' to soldier," which they classify as an "absolutely critical" development in a fundamental change in the nature of law enforcement. Stamper writes that a growing minority of cops are starting to "realize the harm these tactics have done to the people they’ve been hired to serve, the risks to their own safety and wellbeing, and the erosion of public confidence and respect for law enforcement."

FFA succeeds by expanding beyond farming

At a time when farm employment accounts for less than one percent of all U.S. jobs, the FFA, once the Future Farmers of America, is the largest vocational student group in the country, with more than half a million members, reports Motoko Rich of The New York Times after covering the group's annual convention in Indianapolis. About 70 percent of F.F.A.'s members live in rural areas, but the fastest growing segment of the membership is found in urban and suburban areas, which make up about 10 percent of the organization.

"You would think that something called Future Farmers of America would have come to a screeching halt by at least the 1960s in most parts of the country," Iowa State University historian Pamela Riney-Kehrberg told Rich. She said the group has succeeded largely because it has continued to remain relevant. FFA has expanded its agriculture science focus to include genetics, logistics, landscape gardening and alternative fuels. Chapters of the group also "aim to teach students leadership and job readiness as much as the finer points of cattle care or corn fertilization."

Rich adds, "At a time when many employers complain about the lack of basic communication and interpersonal skills among job candidates, the FFA emphasizes work on group projects and old-fashioned presentations in essays and speeches at many of its events. Even in the purely agricultural contests like the judging of livestock, students defended their positions before the judges as if they were trial lawyers in court."

About one in 12 jobs in the nation are agriculture-related, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Rich writes that part of FFA's appeal could be the expanded definition of agriculture that now includes forestry and fishing, and the fact that the organization does more to prepare youth for viable careers. As Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Rich: "There is unlimited future in agriculture" because of a growing global population and changing diets in developing countries. (Read more)

FDA finds more than 1,200 retailers selling tobacco to minors; database can be searched

More than 1,200 retailers, including CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, were issued warning letters by the Food and Drug Administration this year for illegally selling cigarettes to minors. FDA inspectors conducted 27,500 undercover checks by sending children under 18 into stores to buy cigarettes. These checks resulted in hundreds of letters being sent to retailers. Many of the warnings were sent to stores in rural areas, where a recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report found youth are more likely to use tobacco products.

In 2009, Congress gave the FDA broad authority over tobacco manufacture and sales, and store workers are required to check identification of anyone looking younger than 27. Another provision of the Tobacco Control Act "allows the agency to contract with states to inspect spots where youths could buy cigarettes or chewable tobacco," Alina Selyukh reports for Reuters. "FDA officials said they are on a mission to begin battling the stubbornly high U.S. smoking rates by keeping tobacco out of underage hands in the first place."

The agency posted the warning letters on its website last week with a searchable database of all checks it conducted. The letters allow retailers to correct their infractions without fines, but repeat offenders could face fines or loss of ability to sell tobacco products of any kind. To see if retailers in your state, community or city were issued a warning letter, search the FDA database of compliance checks.

Finalists for federal educational innovation grants include rural projects

The U.S. Department of Education announced 23 highest-rated "Investing in Innovation" potential grantees for the 2011 grant fund of $150 million last week through a press release. This year's "i3"competition required applicants to focus on one of the five absolute priorities, including a new one aimed at "increasing achievement and high school graduation rates in rural schools."

Finalists were selected from almost 600 applicants and must secure matching private donations equivalent up to 15 percent of specific awards by Dec. 9 to receive the grant. Berea College is one of the 23 potential recipients and would use the money for education initiatives in Appalachian Kentucky. North Carolina's New Schools Project would use its grant money on a program to increase college readiness.

Said Education Secretary Arne Duncan: "This round of i3 grantees is poised to have real impact in areas of critical need including STEM education and rural communities, on projects ranging from early childhood interventions to school turnaround models that will prepare more students for college and career." For a summary of the announcement, which includes a link to the list of 23 potential grantees and frequently asked questions about the program, click here.

Resource to monitor Great Plains and Upper Midwest energy transmission lines available

Journalists, lawmakers, landowners and others interested in electric transmission projects in the Great Plains and Upper Midwest can now track the progress of projects in their communities through the Center for Rural Affairs' new Clean Energy Transmission Database.

The database contains information about 20 proposed transmission lines that would transport wind energy to more than 11 states. Many of the highlighted projects are still in planning and development stages, so the map is only a rough approximation. The center says it will update the map as more information becomes available. To see a map of the proposed lines, click here.

Rural journalist proposes to girlfriend in his column

The marriage proposal has become something of an art. There have been proposals at baseball games, on YouTube and even proposals in the form of police raids. But one we hadn't seen yet seen came in the form of a newspaper column earlier this month in The Item of Sumter, S.C. (Photo: McCormac and now fiance, Whitney Bragg)

Nick McCormac took time from his usual coverage of local and state politics to tell the story of how he and his girlfriend met at a bar through a friend and talked all night and into the morning. Everything for them seemed to fall into place almost too perfectly over their year-and-a-half long relationship, he wrote. The actual proposal speaks for itself: "No matter what I do or what I say, no words could ever justifiably describe how I feel about you. But there are six words that come awfully close. Whitney Bragg, will you marry me?" McCormac told Nina Mandell of the New York Daily News that Whitney "read the column on the computer as the two were getting ready to leave for work as McCormac looked on nervously." She "turned around and had tears in her eyes" and took a few seconds to respond with a "yes."

The column has received heavy response. It was first linked on the journalism website Poynter.org, and then again on the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association site last week under "Reader's Corner." For McCormac, his proposal just made sense: "I'm a lot better at writing than I am at speaking. Ever since I've become a professional writer, I've looked at it as something really unique."

New boss says American Electric will burn less coal

The new chief executive of American Electric Power said this week he wants the company to burn less coal as it looks for alternative fuel sources, reports Ryan Tracy of Dow Jones Newswires. The company's current capacity of coal use is 65 percent; new CEO Nick Akins told Tracy "he expects the company's entire fleet of coal-fired power plants to eventually meet more stringent environmental regulations, despite its loud calls for more time to comply with pending Environmental Protection Agency rules."

"The only thing we are going to wind up with in the end are fully scrubbed and fully environmentally compliant units," Akins said during an industry conference hosted by the Edison Electric Institute trade group. He also told Tracy that the company would not be able to meet EPA requirements "within a few years." He blamed the government for not creating new energy policy goals and said AEP will better be able to move forward when they know what new policy goals are. Said Akins: "We are at a transformational stage where we need to spend a lot of new capital on what that new mix of resources is going to be."

He said AEP mitigates the risk of policy changes by diversifying its fuel sources, and this is the main reason for burning less coal and transitioning to other fuel sources. Tracy reports the company is currently looking into gas-fired power plants because natural gas is cheap right now. Nuclear generation is not on the table, though Aikins said the company would likely update its existing nuclear plant to add capacity. (Read more)

As negotiators keep working, Congressional Research Service illuminates farm-program debate

Congressional negotiators failed to meet the Nov. 1 deadline for proposing farm-program cuts to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, generally known as "the super committee," and are still working on a package. Meanwhile, the Congressional Research Service has issued a report that helps explain the programs and proposals in play.

"Various federal budget proposals have emerged that recommend lower federal spending including cuts to agriculture programs ranging from $10 billion to $40 billion over 10 years," CRS reports. "In response, members of Congress, the administration and a number of farm groups have put forward proposals to reduce government expenditures on farm subsidies and revise farm programs. . . . Other ideas have also been proposed but are not discussed here because of duplication or due to insufficient information at time of publication." For the report, click here.

Revisions in livestock-marketing rule please meatpackers, upset National Farmers Union

The U.S. Agriculture Department's submission of a scaled-back GIPSA (Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration) proposal on livestock and poultry marketing reforms seems to make no one happy, Agri-Pulse reports: USDA "opted to pursue final regulatory clearance on portions of its original proposed rule that address only poultry provisions and some swine provisions."

In other words, the Obama administration is "leaving out major provisions strongly opposed by meatpackers but retaining new rules on poultry production and marketing," Meating Place reports. "Apparently gone is the ban on packer-to-packer sale of livestock, restrictions on price premiums based on standards for product quality, and limits on contract terms based on the number of animals sold. The biggest turnabout for the agency, however, may be the fact that it is apparently giving up its attempt to define 'competitive injury,' an important legal concept, as 'conduct (that) distorts competition in the market channel or marketplace.' This definition was included in the section that is apparently omitted from the final rule."

"USDA effectively did as a bi-partisan group of lawmakers demanded more than a year ago by removing controversial language. Supporters of the rule aren't happy and because of that were more prone to issue denunciations," Chris Clayton of DTN writes. "Livestock groups that wanted to kill the rule remain wary."

The revisions were sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final review. Those revisions "deal with poultry companies giving reasonable notice to growers prior to suspension of delivery those birds, poultry and swine production contracts that require facility upgrades, termination of production contracts and the use of arbitration to resolve contract disputes," Agri-Pulse reports.

Action was deferred on proposals that would define conduct by chicken integrators and meat processors that gives an unfair advantage. Agri-Pulse reports that Colin Woodall, vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and an outspoken opponent of the GIPSA reforms as initially proposed, said in an interview "that provision – along with an easier burden of proof for competitive injury – are the ones that are going to make significant changes in the way marketing contracts are handled because of the litigation that could come from those.”

USDA notified industry stakeholders and farm-state lawmakers that it would be abandoning sections of the GIPSA rule concerning packer-to-packer sales and packer buyers and records retention. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson said the rules will provide poultry and pork producers with protection, but he urged USDA to push for the most critical parts of the rule, which include "clearer definition of USDA's interpretation of competitive injury." (Read more)

The exact details of the final rule are currently unknown, but the executive director of Food & Water Watch, Wenonah Haulter, told Agri-Pulse: "It is clear that the administration has caved to meat-industry pressure to abandon independent hog and cattle producers to unfair treatment at the hands of the large meatpackers." (Agri-Pulse is subscription-only, but free trials are offered on its website.)

Obama delays decision on embattled pipeline

The Obama administration announced this afternoon that it would delay a decision on a heavy-oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico pending study of alternate routes to address environmental concerns in Nebraska about the Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer, "pushing off a no-win decision for President Barack Obama until well after the 2012 election," report Dan Berman and Darren Goode of Politico.

"Environmental groups have been protesting the pipeline that would run from Alberta oil sands to Texas refineries, and there have been rumblings that greens would abandon Obama next fall if he approved it," Politico notes. "At the same time, labor unions have backed the pipeline, arguing that it would create badly needed jobs for American workers."

House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement: “More than 20,000 new American jobs have just been sacrificed in the name of political expediency. The current project has already been deemed environmentally sound, and calling for a new route is nothing but a thinly veiled attempt to avoid upsetting the president’s political base before the election.” A spokesman for Republican Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska, who opposes the planned route, said the senator welcomes the review if it is "sincere and not just an effort to push it past the election." (Read more)

In Wyoming aquifer, EPA finds a fracking chemical

Two wells drilled by the Environmental Protection Agency into a Wyoming aquifer "where residents have long complained that drilling fouled their water . . . contain high levels of cancer-causing compounds and at least one chemical commonly used in hydraulic fracturing," Abrahm Lustgarten reports for ProPublica, the independent investigative news operation that has won prizes for its reports on fracking.

EPA "did not interpret the findings or make any attempt to identify the source of the pollution," Lustgarten reports, adding that the agency "has been careful to consider all possible causes of the contamination [of water wells]  and to distance its inquiry from the controversy around hydraulic fracturing. Still, the chemical compounds the EPA detected are consistent with those produced from drilling processes, including one -- a solvent called 2-Butoxyethanol (2-BE) -- widely used in the process of hydraulic fracturing." (Read more)

Database on doctors is public again after pressure, but with questionable strings attached

After pressure from lawmakers, journalists and advocacy groups, the Health Resources and Services Administration this week restored a data file it removed from public view in September, reports Abby Henkel for the Society of Professional Journalists. Pia Christensen of Covering Health reports that HRSA first removed the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank, a resource for journalists and the public to learn about malpractice and disciplinary cases against doctors, because "the agency believed it was used to identify physicians inappropriately . . . after the urging of a Kansas neurosurgeon with a long history of malpractice payouts" who became the subject of a story in the Kansas City Star. Removal of the file was protested as an attack on the public's right to know, and a coalition led by the Association of Health Care Journalists publicly objected the removal.

Henkel writes there is a "huge caveat" attached to restoring public posting of the data: "Users of the data set must agree not to repost or share the data on other websites, and cannot use it to identify an entity or individual (such as a doctor) by name." Previously, the law made doctors' names confidential, and the Public Use File identified doctors only by numbers. Also, journalists will have to return data from the Public Use File to HRSA upon request. She adds that "violating the rules could result in having to return the data and being barred from receiving it in the future."

This is a troubling to AHJC president Charles Ornstein, who said in a news release: "How can the government say data is public but then say it's only public with strings attached? I am troubled that HRSA is overstepping its legal authority with these new rules and may be imposing unconstitutional prior restraints on reporters." Christensen reports that journalists have used the Public Use File in the past "to fill in information about particular physicians whom they have identified through other records and means." Such use of the file will arguably be illegal under the new rules. (Read more)

Senate committee approves bill to protect rural post offices and Saturday mail delivery

"The United States Postal Service will not be able to close rural post offices before establishing a more thorough process for selecting closure candidates and re-evaluating the locations being studied for closure, a Senate panel decided Wednesday." So reports Matt Woolbright of Gannett Co. Inc. for the Great Falls Tribune, focusing on the post-office issue that is a top concern for Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.

But for the Arizona Republic, another Gannett paper, Woolbright focuses on a bipartisan bill's protection for Saturday mail delivery, a provision opposed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "The legislation, authored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., mandates that the USPS wait two years before being allowed to move to a five-day delivery schedule." McCain's unsuccessful amendment would have gotten rid of the two-year wait time, something he said would be akin to "kicking a can down the road" for two years. He said the Postal Service was able to decide for itself whether or not to continue Saturday mail delivery: "Do we in all our wisdom dictate to them: No, you have to keep delivering mail on Saturdays?"

The provision on rural post office closings was added to the 21st Century Postal Service Act of 2011 during debate by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The act is the first major overhaul of the postal service in years, Woolbright reports. Tester was a co-sponsor of the rural provision amendment and said his constituents in rural Montana made clear to him how important their community post offices are. Said Tester in a news release: "The postmaster general cannot balance his books on the back of rural America. . . . I won't let the postal service ignore their voices."

Woolbright reports the Government Accountabiliy Office has projected the USPS will lose $10 billion in the 2011 fiscal year. The Postal Service estimates that ending Saturday delivery would save $3 billion annually. McCain said he doesn't believe taxpayers should "be on the hook" for $3 billion a year because Congress allowed USPS to continue 6-day delivery for another two years. However, the amendment's supporters said the waiting period was included so USPS could try to find other savings to cover projected losses. (Read more)

Documentary about rural veterans, their families and communities will air on PBS tonight

A documentary highlighting the disproportionate amount of service members from rural areas will air tonight on many public broadcasting television stations. Where Soldiers Come From was the centerpiece of a panel discussion during the 2011 gathering of the National Rural Assembly in which the filmmaker Heather Courtney and combat veteran Dominic Fredianelli discussed the experience of rural youth in active military duty.

The film "follows the lives of young men from Michigan's Upper Peninsula who enlist in the National Guard and are deployed overseas." In a release from the National Rural Assembly, it is described as "a complex and moving portrait of rural young people, their families and loved ones, and the communities that both celebrate their youths' military service and worry about their hometown boys' safe return. It's a realistic and compassionate look at rural America that will resonate for many communities across the country."

To check your local listings for times when the film will be shown, click here. This is Bill Bishop's review of the film from the Daily Yonder, and here you can find the film's trailer.

D.C. food seminar turns its attention to concentration of ownership in meatpacking

George Washington University is conducting a "Seminar on Food" series, and the second event will address the market concentration of meatpacking. A panel discussion will include Barry C. Lynn, senior fellow at the New America Foundation and author of Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and The Economics of Destruction; Mark Halverson, staff director for the Senate Agriculture Committee; and Patrick Woodall, research director and senior policy advocate for the lobby group Food & Water Watch.

According to a release about the event, "just four companies currently control over 80 percent of the cattle packing market." Lynn will "provide the context we can use to decipher a monopoly issue" like this. Halverson helped Sen. Tom Harkin "challenge meat packing monopolies in the language of the 2008 Farm Bill." And Food & Water Watch has "kept an eye on the implementation of the specific anti-trust provision in the 2008 Farm Bill and will report on their research and describe the methods through which a delicate and complicated issue such as this can be studied."

The event, "Monopoly Meat," will be held Nov. 21 from 2 to 4 p.m. in Duques Hall on GWU's campus in Washington, D.C. To learn more click here.

Rural counties still doing a bit better on jobs than nation as a whole, but lag in job creation

Rural America followed the rest of the nation last month in showing slightly higher employment, but there were significant areas of job losses, including the Northeast and the Southwest, according to county-by-county Bureau of Labor Statistics data compiled by the Daily Yonder. (Click on map or link below for larger version)

Unemployment in rural counties continued to be lower than nationwide, at 8.5 percent, down from 8.8 percent in August. However, "Rural counties lagged metro and exurban counties in terms of job creation in the last 12 months, according to BLS," Yonder Co-Editor Bill Bishop writes.

The Yonder story also features tables of the 50 counties that lost the most jobs in the last year and the 50 that gained the most jobs. For the story and charts, go here.

ACLU argues private prisons have their pitfalls; corrections companies cite rural benefits

The American Civil Liberties Union accuses private prison companies of “profiting at the expense of a growing prison population,” Haleigh Svoboda of The Texas Tribune writes. The companies, which often build prisons in job-hungry rural areas, lobby for stricter laws with higher incarceration rates and contributed to campaigns to gain more government contracts, the ACLU’s report says. (Texas Tribune photo by Dave Nakayama)

The report also says private prisons cut costs by slashing pay for staff, which leads to higher turnover rates and less adequately trained staff, David Shapiro, staff attorney for ACLU’s National Prison Project told National Public Radio. The results: higher levels of violence in private prisons, some studies show.

Corrections Corporation of America acknowledged in Securities and Exchange Commission records that current sentencing laws increase company profits, Svoboda reports. But a CCA spokesman said the ACLU report "is being advanced by a familiar cast of industry critics and is blind to our industry's many benefits."

Critics are forgetting that some private prisons generate income for local communities and give back to the community. GEO Group provides school scholarships and pays $6,000 towards maintenance of the city's courthouse in Karnes County, Texas, NPR reports. The company "also gives money to the local Rotary Club, Toys for Tots, the Little League, Relay for Life and other organizations and events," former Karnes County judge Alger Kendall told NPR. (Read more)

Primary care and management of chronic diseases could soon be coming to your local Walmart

Just weeks after announcing part-time employees would no longer receive health insurance benefits, Walmart said Monday it is planning to offer extended medical services in its stores, report NPR's Julie Appleby and Sarah Varney. Since many of its stores are in rural areas, this move could extend medical coverage to people who often can't afford transportation to a doctor. The retailer "sent out a request for partners to help it 'dramatically lower the cost of health care by becoming the largest provider of primary health care services in the nation.'"

In a 14-page request, Walmart asks health-care providers to define their expertise in a variety of medical areas, including managing patients with chronic health problems like asthma, HIV, arthritis, depression and sleep apnea. The retailer is also trying to find health partners who can monitor patients with diabetes and high blood pressure. Appleby and Varney say "The move would capitalize on growing demand for primary care in 2014, when the federal health law fully kicks in and millions more Americans are expected to have government or private health insurance." This effort could also capitalize on "collaborations between doctors and hospitals to streamline care and lower costs," they report.

Though expansion of medical services in Walmarts "could help lower costs for some patients and increase access to primary care services," it has its fair share of nay-sayers. Glen Stream, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, tells Abbleby and Varney that Walmart's "proposal takes health care in the wrong direction by further fragmenting care. Ann O'Malley, physician and senior researcher at the Washington think tank Center for Studying Health System Change, said she's not sure Walmart's approach will work. She said she "would be surprised if this were a model that could truly attack cost problems." Colin McGranahan, retail analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said this could simply be a move to boost foot traffic and sales in Walmarts: "If you get someone in the door, you can also sell them milk and a shotgun." (Read more)

Nov. 17 will be first National Rural Health Day

Nov. 17, 2011 will be  the first annual National Rural Health Day sponsored by the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health. The goals of the event are to highlight rural communities as wonderful places to live and work, increase awareness of rural health-related issues and promote the roles of state rural-health offices in addressing those issues.

On Nov. 17, the organization will host a series of free webinars in conjunction with the observance. To learn more about the webinars, click here. The group also has a series of free tools newspapers can use to promote the event. (Read more) The Center for Rural Health is hosting a photo contest to promote the event. To find your state's rural health office, click here.

Big-time art museum in Bentonville, Ark.? Walmart heiress says that's exactly where it belongs

It's been more than 50 years since a museum dedicated entirely to American art was opened in the U.S. That will change Friday, but the grand opening won't be in New York, Los Angeles or Philadelphia. This multi-million dollar museum will open its doors in Bentonville, Ark., a rural town of about 35,000 best known as the home of Walmart. The museum was the brainchild of Alice Walton, left, 62-year-old daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton. She is the 10th wealthiest American, according to Forbes magazine.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art "is regarded as the nation's most important new art museum in a generation," reports Chuck Bartels of The Associated Press, largely because of the collection Walton spent more than 20 years amassing. Carol Vogel of The New York Times reports that Walton's collection includes Gilbert Stewart's "portrait of George Washington from 1797 ($8.1 million), Asher B. Durand’s "Kindred Spirits" from 1849 ($35 million) and Norman Rockwell’s 1943 "Rosie the Riveter" ($4.9 million)." Acquisition of Thomas Eakins' "The Gross Clinic" proved more problematic. Steve Paul of the Kansas City Star reported that she put up $68 million with help from the National Gallery of Art to buy the painting from a Philadelphia medical school, but most Philadelphians thought the painting was a "piece of its cultural patrimony," and raised enough to counter the offer and keep the painting in Pennsylvania.

Walton told Vogel it was not easy "dealing with members of the East Coast art establishment" when she first announced plans to build the museum because "a lot of people there don’t really know this part of the world, really don’t know the people here and the desire and the need for art." Bartels reports that art critics and lovers on the East Coast "bemoaned the notion that cherished works were being commandeered for display in an Ozark mountain town." When she bought "Kindred Spirits," some felt the New York Public Library "had cast off a beloved part of its history." Walton said she never wanted to collect anything else but American art for Crystal Bridges because Bentonville is "the heartland of the country," and "It’s what should be here."

Bartels reports the museum will display 440 works, much of them being seen publicly for the first time because Walton bought them from private collections. Crystal Bridges is a 10-minute walk through the woods from Bentonville's downtown square, on 120 acres that have long been owned by the Walton family, and includes three and a half miles of trails. Bartels reports that tourism officials "expect the museum to become an even more popular landmark than the $160 million Clinton Presidential Center" in Little Rock, and to bring millions into Bentonville as people from across the country travel to visit the museum.

CBS "Sunday Morning" this week profiled Walton and Crystal Bridges (below) very well. You can find that report here.

Education official to hold embargoed call with working journalists Wed. afternoon; sign up by noon

The U.S. Department of Education’s assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Innovation and Improvement, Jim Shelton, will host an embargoed call for working journalists at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Nov. 9, to discuss an announcement related to the office's Investing in Innovation grant fund program, known as i3.

Information discussed on the call and additional materials will be embargoed until 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10. Journalists who want to participate in the call must agree to these terms and RSVP to press@ed.gov by noon Wednesday, Nov. 9, to receive dial-in information and additional embargoed materials.

A new method of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas could have less impact on the environment

New natural-gas drilling technology developed by Canadian company GasFrac removes water from the controversial drilling method known as "hydraulic fracturing" and replaces it with a thick gel made of propane. Brian Nearing of the Albany Times Union and Anthony Brino of InsideClimate News report the likelihood of environmental harm is decreased with liquified propane gas fracturing, or "gas fracking," because there's no risk of tainted drilling water being mishandled and threatening human health and the environment.

The use of hydraulic fracturing has recently been a topic of much controversy in many rural areas, and state and local regulations have been drafted or passed-to limit use of the method. (U.S. Energy Information Administration map shows shales with gas; click map for larger version)

Nearing and Brino report that gas fracking works similarly to hydraulic fracturing, pumping sand or man-made materials into shale formations where gas is trapped under high pressure to fracture the shale and release the gas. Under the high pressure and heat, the propane gel turns to vapor and returns to the surface with the gas, free of drilling chemicals and underground radioactive material. Once on the surface, it's collected and reused.

Though the method is still relatively new, it already has strong proponents such as David Burnett, professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University, who told Nearing and Brino that gas fracking "can serve two ends—protecting the environment and reducing costs to the drilling industry of handling and disposing of tainted water." He said there's no reason the method can't be effective.

The industry, however, is waiting to measure the exact effectiveness of the method before changing its approach to drilling. GasFrac Chief Technology Officer Robert Lestz told Nearing and Brino that only time would tell whether or not gas fracking will "make inroads in a global drilling industry that began using water-based fracking in the late 1940s and since has invested vast amounts in that technology." Hydrofracking is currently the most widely used gas well drilling method in the world. Said Lestz: "The infrastructure is already there for water, people have already put millions into it. Sometimes the good is the enemy of the great." (Read more)

According to new measurement technique, fewer children, blacks and rural people are poor

There are fewer African-Americans and children living in poverty than previously estimated, according to a new measurement technique that the U.S. Census Bureau instituted Monday and says is more accurate. The measure also shows a slightly higher poverty rate for the nation last year than previously calculated.

Though the "supplemental poverty measure" will not replace official measures of poverty that depend on calculation of federal assistance to states, it could provide a more accurate picture of poverty in rural America, where high rates have been consistent.

Sabrina Tavernise and Robert Gebeloff of The New York Times report results of the new measure: "There were 3.2 million fewer children found to be living in poverty in 2010, compared with the official measure, a difference of about 4 percentage points, and 800,000 fewer poor African-Americans, or about 2 percentage points less." They write that a big reason for this is the expansion of food stamps and the earned-income tax credit under President Obama that helped lift 11 million people above the poverty line.

"The new measure shows a 15.9 percent poverty rate among people 65 and older, nearly double the 9 percent rate of the official measure, largely because the new measure deducts medical expenses from income," Tavernise and Gebeloff report. Census official Kathleen Short told them the new measure "was developed primarily to give policy makers a sense of the effect that social safety-net programs are having" by including costs like child care and out-of-pocket medical care.

While the measure is more accurate in ways, some think the number of elderly living in poverty has been overstated because it doesn't take into consideration money from savings and the stock market. University of Chicago economics professor Bruce Meyer told the Times: "If you look at what they consume, you see that their living standard is much higher." (Read more)

Postal officials quash practice of banning photos and recording at meetings on post-office closings

The U.S. Postal Service has adopted "an open door policy allowing attendees to conduct non-disruptive photography and audiovisual recording at community discontinuance meetings," reports Steve Hutkins of Save the Post Office, a website providing information about post-office closings and consolidations. (Still from video of the DeWitt, Ky., meeting recorded by Eddie Arnold of the Barbourville Mountain Advocate)

The announcement comes following a formal inquiry by Ruth Goldway, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, to USPS. The service has confirmed at least 14 instances where restrictions against video, audio or photography were enforced during meetings on possible post-office discontinuances in Missouri, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, Hutkins reports.

At a community meeting in Success, Mo., USPS operatives "told those attending they could not record audio, video or take pictures or they would call the meeting to an end," Brad Gentry of The Houston Herald reported. "Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly a friendly way to greet patrons concerned about losing the community’s identity with the closing of their post office. . . . As the meeting closed, our Herald representative snapped a crowd shot and was later greeted by a plainclothes U.S. postal inspector who flashed his badge and asked for a meeting in a hallway." For a page PDF with Gentry's column, click here.

For a good story by Calen McKinney of the Central Kentucky News-Journal on a meeting about the post office in Mannsville, Ky., click here (free trial subscription may be required). One interesting angle to the story is the effort by Lebanon, Ky., lawyer Elmer George to save the post office, backed up by a detailed PowerPoint presentation, downloadable here.

The Postal Service's reply to the inquiry said postal regulations preclude taping of meetings by postal officials, but not by community members during community meetings, Hutkins reports. The new policy allows community members to make recordings, but charges local personnel with maintaining order and preventing disruptions. (Read more)

Interior Department plans to require disclosure of fracking chemicals used on federal lands

Natural-gas and oil drillers on federal lands may soon be required to reveal all chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing of deep, dense shales, Ayesha Rascoe of Reuters reports. The Interior Department plans to issue a proposal within a couple of months requiring disclosure of the chemicals, with finalized guidelines following within 12 months after the proposal.

The aim is to improve public confidence in fracking through complete disclosure of the chemicals being used, David Hayes, deputy interior secretary, told the Energy Department's shale gas panel. Interior is also planning to develop additional rules to ensure well integrity and manage waste water. Last year about 14 percent of U.S. natural gas production was on federal land and about 90 percent of those wells used hydraulic fracturing, Rascoe reports.

Journalists show inadequate enforcement of laws against toxic air pollution, pinpoint sites

A new report by National Public Radio and the Center for Public Integrity says state and federal regulators are still struggling to enforce a major part of the Clean Air Act, leaving many communities "exposed to risky concentrations of benzene, formaldehyde, mercury and many other hazardous chemicals."

The journalistic collaboration has produced an interactive map that allows users to look up Environmental Protection Agency data on approximately 17,000 facilities that have emitted hazardous chemicals into the air. (Click on map below for interactive version)

The "air toxics" issue has lingered for decades. The reporters found that more than 1,600 facilities are labeled "high priority," justifying urgent action, but nearly 300 of them have been in that category for more than a decade. About 400 of them "are on an internal EPA 'watch list,' which the agency has kept secret until now," they write. For the list, in an Excel spreadsheet, click here.

Enforcement has "been delayed by tension between the EPA and state environment programs, budget cuts and a system that allows companies to estimate their own toxic emissions," NPR and CPI report, noting shrinking state and EPA budgets as additional reasons for the lack of enforcement. (Read more)

This evening on "All Things Considered," NPR rural correspondent Howard Berkes reports on toxic pollution by a carbon-black plant in Ponca City, Okla. Thursday on "Morning Edition," he focuses on another rural community, Chanute, Kan., which has a cement kiln fired by hazardous waste. UPDATE: The Chanute story is here; a sidebar is here and a story about the cement-kiln rules is here.

Memoir of a remarkable life in rural journalism is inspiring and entertaining, reviewers say

Albert P. Smith Jr., who turned his life around as a rural journalist and co-founded the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, has published a long-awaited autobiography to highly favorable reviews.

"Al Smith and his contemporaries had to constantly balance muckraking reporter and crusading editor with a publisher’s mandates to grow his business and promote the community it served," former big-city editor Jim Squires writes for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "Smith eagerly grasped the role of 'engaged journalist,' which to him entailed doing whatever it took to make good things happen." (H-L photo by Charles Bertram)

Squires is a member of the Institute's advisory board, but his high opinion of the book is shared by four others who have published reviews of it: David Hawpe, former editor of The Courier-Journal; Ronnie Ellis, Kentucky statehouse reporter for Community Newspaper Holdings; and CNHI and Huffington Post contributor Don McNay.

McNay sums up Smith: "His drinking caused him to lose a scholarship to Vanderbilt and many jobs in New Orleans. He stumbled into a small town, Russellville, Ky., as a reporter, found his way to an AA meeting and stopped drinking. He found a wonderful wife, created a blended family, bought a bunch of newspapers that he later sold for millions, was appointed by Jimmy Carter as head of the Appalachian Regional Commission and became one of our greatest Kentuckians." (Read more)

Ellis calls the book "a remarkable story of a remarkable life, lived on a stage larger than journalism or the set of his long-running show on KET, 'Comment on Kentucky,' or the mastheads of his weekly newspapers. It records a brutal struggle through inherited and early alcoholism, lost jobs, lost chances on the way to sobriety, success and stature. Along the way, he encounters an incredible cast of sometimes well-known and always unique people, the kind who, like Smith himself, make life worth living." (Read more)

"It is Smith's victory over alcoholism that provides the book's inspiration," Herald-Leader political reporter Jack Brammer writes in a story about Smith and the book. (Photo: Cover of 1974 Courier-Journal & Times Magazine that made Smith a statewide figure)

"Smith's unrelenting focus on fairness gained him a reputation," Paul Sanders, business book reviewer for Smiley Pete Publishing, a neighborhood-based publication distributed in Lexington, Ky., says. "Evenhanded coverage for friends and foes alike will win a newspaper respect for being unafraid to make enemies in the pursuit of truth," Smith writes. (Read more)

"This book comes at what must be an uncomfortable time for rural chauvinists. They cling to a point of view that is under siege," Hawpe writes for his old Louisville paper, citing the latest census figures that show only 16 percent of the U.S. population is rural. "Smith is an extraordinary man, with an exceptional devotion to the best of the rural values that helped form him." He writes about Smith's rural acolytes, including the undersigned, who will interview Smith on stage at the Grand Theatre in Frankfort Friday night. For details on that event, click here. To order the book, go here; to donate $10 of the cost to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, enter this coupon code: SmithIRJ.

Earlier this month, Smith was awarded the 2011 James Madison Award for service to the First Amendment by the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center in the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications. (Read more) To read KyForward's coverage of the event, click here.