Farm Bill defeated in House; food-stamp cuts spell doom for traditional rural-urban alliance

The old rural-urban alliance that married farm and nutrition programs failed to get a Farm Bill through the House this afternoon. The bill lost 195-234, with food stamps apparently the main issue amogn both parties. Among Republicans, 62 voted against the bill; many thought its $2 billion annual cut in food stamps wasn't enough. For all but a few Democrats, it was too much, For the roll call, click here.

The House seemed ready to pass the bill this afternoon "after the Agriculture Committee leadership agreed to a sweeping en bloc amendment Wednesday night to greatly shorten the time of debate" and protect the bill from weekend lobbying, David Rogers reports for Politico. The amendment passed 217-208, clearing the decks for votes on more controversial amendments and final passage or defeat.

Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Tex., agreed to let his "divisive food-stamp amendment" fail on a voice vote to help attract Democratic votes needed to pass the bill, Rogers writes. The House later rejected an amendment by Rep. Mike Huelskamp, R-Kan., to impose certain work requirements on food-stamp recipients, but then voted 227-198 for an amendment by Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., to allow states to set their own work requirements. That may have doomed the bill, which drew only 24 Democratic votes. Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, ranking Democrat on the agriculture panel, told Rogers the amendment was "the last straw. . . . I had a bunch of people come up to me and say, ‘I was with you but this is it. I’m done.’” Peterson had expected 40 Democrats to vote for the bill.

Some Democrats abandoned the bill because the House voted with Speaker John Boehner and milk processors to deleted the dairy market stabilization section of the bill. Rogers writes that the battle "may be best described as the well-connected vs. the well-heeled. Politically influential milk co-ops like Dairy Farmers of America dominate one side; Kraft Foods, Dean Foods and Nestle, the Swiss international company, are on the other." (Read more)

So what happens now? "House Republicans will either have to start over — or, possibly, go to conference without a bill and try to negotiate something with the Senate," writes Brad Plumer of The Washington Post. "This is basically what happened when the House failed to pass a highway bill last year. House lawmakers would still have to approve whatever bill comes out of conference."

"One big question is whether the committee will shed some of its insularity and embrace more reforms as a way to win back Democrats angered by the food-stamp cuts," Rogers writes. "A proposed $50,000 cap per farmer on crop-insurance premium subsidies failed only narrowly and is too severe for Peterson and Lucas to accept, but some cut in the 62 percent subsidy rate is doable without jeopardizing the larger program." (Read more)

Obama preparing regulations limiting carbon dioxide on existing power plants

President Obama is preparing regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, which are responsible for nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, reports John Broder for The New York Times. "The move would be the most consequential climate policy step he could take and one likely to provoke legal challenges from Republicans and some industries." In 2007, the Supreme Court gave all decisions on existing power plants to the executive branch; so far the administration has targeted only new plants for greenhouse-gas limits.

Republicans have criticized Obama’s climate policy "as government overreach that is holding back the economy," reports Broder. Some Democrats have expressed concern "that tough new standards on power plants could slow job growth and raise energy costs, particularly in places like the industrial Midwest that depend on cheap power from coal."

Obama, though, said in a speech Wednesday that the U.S. and the world had a moral imperative to take “bold action” to slow the warming of the planet. “The grim alternative affects all nations — more severe storms, more famine and floods, new waves of refugees, coastlines that vanish, oceans that rise,” Obama said. “This is the global threat of our time.” 

Rules applying to power plants can take years to complete, so if Obama hopes to have a new set of greenhouse-gas standards for utilities in place before he leaves office, he needs to begin before the end of the year, reports Broder. The president is expected to announce his plans, which also include new initiatives on renewable power and energy efficiency, within the next few weeks. (Read more)

Coal company opens state-of-the-art training facility to train employees for disasters

An academy that teaches coal miners how to avoid injury and death in any disaster, through controlled crises, is believed to be the first of its kind in the world, reports Vicki Smith of The Associated Press. The Running Right Leadership Academy, a $23 million 10-acre training complex, officially opened today in Julian, W.Va. (AP photo by Steve Helber: Keith Hainer operates a virtual welding simulator)

Alpha Natural Resources, which runs 55 mines and 18 preparation plants in West Virginia, and about 45 mines and seven load-out facilities in Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Wyoming, created the academy in response to the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in 2012 that claimed the lives of 29 miners. As part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Alpha agreed to invest $80 million in safety training and state-of-the-art safety equipment. The mine was owned by Massey Energy, which Alpha bought.

Cheryl Stapleton, Alpha's director of learning and development, told Smith that the goal is to prepare every employee for a crisis “so they’re not experiencing it for the very first time when it happens. . . . You need to know how to operate safely, but productively and efficiently. In today’s economic challenges, we think that’s what’s going to be necessary to really drive this business forward.”

The center includes a 96,000-square foot simulation coal mine, where instructors can create various environments, such as fire, floods, roof fails and worker injuries. There are also virtual simulators "to learn welding and how to run the continuous mining machine or drive the over-sized dump trucks at surface mines," Smith reports. "From nearby computer monitors and keyboards, instructors throw out hazards the operators will eventually encounter." The facility is now only open to Alpha employees, but eventually other companies will be able to use it. (Read more)

California man turning old Kansas limestone mine into doomsday survival shelter

Californian Robert Vicino is preparing for the end of the world by making plans to turn a limestone cave in rural Kansas into a survival shelter. The cave is a former Army storage facility on the southeast edge of Atchison, about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City, Mo., reports Bill Draper for The Associated Press. The caverns, which are 100 to 150 feet below the surface, and have a constant temperature, were created by limestone mining operations that started in the late 1880s. (AP photo by Orlin Wagner)

Investor Coby Cullins bought the property for $510,000 and leased the 45-acre west cave to Vicino, who plans to call it Vivos Shelter and Resort, reports Draper. Cullins is marketing the 25-acre eastern cave to local businesses. Vicino's shelter will "have enough space for more than 1,000 RVs and up to about 5,000 people." The shelter, though, will be members only, and will require a steep fee to occupy. Vicino also owns other shelters, including one in Indiana, but won't say where "because he fears there would be anarchy in the event of a world-changing catastrophe." (Read more)

Maine governor refuses to talk to newspaper chain after it publishes unfavorable stories

UPDATE June 25: LePage made news again last week, saying during a live televised interview Thursday that Assistant Senate Majority Leader Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) "claims to be for the people, but he's the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline." LePage later said, "Dammit, that comment is not politically correct. But we've got to understand who this man is. This man is a bad person. He not only doesn't have a brain, he has a black heart. And so does the leadership" in the Legislature. LePage also appeared to mock Jackson's rural background and his profession as a logger, saying he "ought to go back in the woods and cut trees and let somebody with a brain come down here and do some work." (Read more)

Maine, which has the highest percentage of rural population in the country, could have a hard time getting information from its governor and his administration in the state's major newspapers. Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who has always had a rocky relationship with the news media, has responded to a series of unfavorable stories about his top environmental regulator by saying he will no longer speak to the Portland Press Herald, the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel, all part of MaineToday Media Inc., Steve Mistler reports for the Herald.

LePage spokesperson Adrienne Bennett told Mistler the administration would no longer participate in stories reported by the three newspapers, saying they "had made it clear that it opposed this administration." She said the papers could get responses from the administration from The Associated Press or through document requests using the Freedom of Access Act.

This isn't LePage's first run-in with newspapers, notes Mistler. In February, during a reading with schoolchildren, he said, "My greatest fear in the state of Maine: newspapers. I'm not a fan of newspapers." In 2012 he told junior high students that reading newspapers in Maine is "like paying somebody to tell you lies." LePage also said he'd like to punch a reporter during a taped interview, blasted the press in in his 2011 inauguration speech, and once stormed out of a news conference when he didn't like the line of questioning. (Read more)

Farm Bill debate begins, amid worries of 'circular firing squad' among traditional supporters

The full House is debating its version of the Farm Bill, but the Rules Committee's decision last night to allow 103 amendments to be considered was expected to push a final vote on the bill into next week, perhaps threatening the tenuous coalition needed to pass the bill and start a conference with the Senate to work out differences in the two versions.

"Most will have just 10 minutes for debate, but as a practical matter, the leadership would have to show a lot more flexibility about the floor schedule to finish the farm bill this week," David Rogers writes for Politico. "The sudden shift upset top members of the House Agriculture Committee, fearful of leaving the giant bill exposed over the weekend. But Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told Politico he was confident still of winning passage."

Still, supporters of the bill "are increasingly worried that the House floor debate . . . will look more like a circular firing squad, with traditional supporters lining up to attack each other in ways that could lead to defeat of the overall bill," Sara Wyant writes for Agri-Pulse, a Washington newsletter.

Farm and nutrition interests, who have historically been allies pushing for farm bill passage, are at odds over the $20.5 billion in food-stamp cuts over the next 10 years," Wyant writes. "For some conservative GOP lawmakers, the cuts contained in H.R. 1947, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, aren’t nearly enough. But for many Democrats, whose votes will be needed to pass the bill, they remain adamantly opposed to reductions they say will bump 2 million Americans and 200,000 hungry children out of food and nutrition programs." (Read more)

However, the prospect of a fight between Midwestern and Southern Republicans faded as "Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio) pulled down his amendment challenging a new price-loss program important to Southern crops," Rogers reports. "Environmental groups felt the same twinge as Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) faded in a fight over toughening conservation requirements for farmers benefiting from crop insurance. In both cases, Gibbs and Thompson’s offices said the lawmakers were looking forward to making their cases in conference with the Senate."

UPDATE: Rogers notes that most of the more controversial amendments, such as those on the dairy program, the sugar program and "Republican proposals to add work requirements for those receiving food stamps" will be delayed until next week. However, Lucas told The Hill that quick action on about 40 amendments gave him hope that the bill could pass Thursday.

Obama ignores many rural states, a political risk

President Obama has never or rarely visited some states that didn't support him in either election, an absence that is leading to growing dissent among voters and a lack of support by representatives and senators from those states, reports John Harwood of The New York Times.

As president, Obama has never been to several red states -- North Dakota, South Dakota, Arkansas, Idaho, South Carolina and Utah -- and has only once traveled to Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Tennessee and Wyoming, reports Harwood. Obama lost all those states in 2008 and 2012. In contrast, Obama has visited the swing states of Ohio 39 times, Florida 30 times, Colorado 19 times, Iowa 18 times and Nevada 17 times. He won all those states in both elections.

David Axelrod, who has advised Obama from the start of his career, told Harwood, “A lot of where the president goes has to do with where he can influence the public to influence the people in Congress who are potential votes. It’d be great for him, if he had the time, to barnstorm the red states and meet people. I don’t know how fundamentally that would change things.”

Some disagree. Matthew Dowd, who was George W. Bush's campaign strategist, met with Obama in 2008 when he was running for president, telling him “I hope you’re going to be the president of the country, not just leader of your party,” reports Harwood. Dowd said Obama’s engagement with adversaries in and out of Washington has been too narrowly focused, “about a transaction and not about a relationship.”

Among those who has said Obama needs to travel more in red states is Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog and is based at the University of Kentucky. He told Harwood that in remaining a stranger, Obama has allowed negative sentiment toward his presidency to deepen and harden. He said Obama should remember, “You’re president of the whole country.” (Read more)

New York Times: EPA seems shy of factory-farm regs

According to its own studies, the Environmental Protection Agency says agricultural runoff is the leading cause of impaired water quality, with factory farms creating between 500 million and 1 billion tons of manure, three times as much waste as humans produce in the U.S. Yet, EPA continues to fail to restrict runoff from manure lagoons and feedlots, even withdrawing rules that would greatly benefit the quality of water, opines The New York Times. (Photo from Food and Water Watch)

Last year EPA withdrew a rule to gather basic information from factory farms, and another that would have expanded the number of farms required to have a national pollution discharge permit, the Times editorial says. Fewer than 60 percent of farms are currently required to have a permit. And last week the EPA "announced that promised new regulations governing feedlot discharges nationally would not be forthcoming."

"Right now, the patchwork of regulations — which assume a great deal of self-policing — suits the factory farm industry all too well," the editorial says. "So does the EPA.’s inability to gather even the most basic information about those farms. The industry believes that the less consumers know, the better. President Obama’s nominee to lead the EPA, Gina McCarthy, is still awaiting Senate confirmation. If and when she gets the job, she should make it an early priority to get the data she needs to shed light on — and forcefully regulate — an industry that thrives on ignorance." (Read more)

Journalists invited to free workshop in Ohio about harmful algae in lakes

The Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources is hosting a one-day workshop July 29 at Maumee Bay State Park in Oregon, Ohio, with the main focus being the current state of Lake Erie and other lakes around the nation. According to a news release, this year is expected to be another bad year for harmful algal blooms -- a rapid increase in the population of algae in an aquatic system.

Journalists participating in the event "will hear from scientists, policy makers, industry representatives, and others about new modeling efforts and phosphorus reductions programs in the Maumee River, the state of the fishery, and Ohio's response to the Phosphorus Task Force's summer report," states the release.

The event is free and open all journalists. Space is limited to 40 participants. To register click here. For more information call 406-273-1906, or email Contact@INJR.org.

Community development block grants, key to many small-town projects, face 40 percent cut in House

House Republicans have proposed a $44.1 billion transportation and housing bill that would cut about 40 percent of the money for community development block grants, which support economic development, housing and infrastructure in many rural towns. President Obama had asked for $2.79 million for the 2014 fiscal year, David Rogers reports for Poiltico. The bill would give the program $1.6 billion; it received $2.7 million in 1975, when Republican President Gerald Ford started it, Rogers notes.

"CDBG’s fall is the most striking example yet of what’s become a genuinely historic rollback of domestic discretionary spending," Rogers writes. "The first across-the-board cuts ordered in March under sequestration brought appropriations down to $984 billion. A second round, this winter could take discretionary spending down to $967 billion. And in the midst of this, House Republicans are proposing to shift about $54 billion from domestic programs to defense-related spending."

The $24.9 billion provided in the bill for public and Indian housing is $953 million below what Congress had approved a few months ago, and is a $2.8 billion, or a 10 percent cut, from Obama’s 2014 request, reports Rogers. "When the Senate Appropriations Committee meets Thursday morning, Democrats are expected to go in the opposite direction, approving a discretionary spending target of $1.058 trillion for the coming year." (Read more)

Weekly paper serving community devastated by Colorado's largest fire keeps on publishing, for now

"Nothing stops the Black Forest News," not even a Colorado-record forest fire that burned the editor's home and those of hundreds of her neighbors, reports Jesse Paul of the Colorado Springs Gazette.

"Three days after she lost everything, Judy von Ahlefeldt's newspaper rolled off the presses like it has for the last 53 years," Paul writes. "Gone was her home of 43 years, her beloved mustang, Monty, and years of research on Black Forest. . . . Von Ahlefeldt, 70, knows everything about Black Forest."

Much of that is in her newspaper archives, so when she got an early warning and saw that the fire might reach her, she gathered them up "instead of family photos, a work-in-progress dissertation on the Palmer Divide or countless irreplaceable possessions," Paul reports. "They can't be replaced, but everybody that lost a house lost those things," she told him.

"Von Ahlefeldt is the owner, publisher, reporter, designer, editor, advertising representative, and photographer . . . a community-based, one-woman news organization, informing a few hundred readers each week on the happenings of the forest," Paul writes. She has lived there since 1970 and owned the weekly paper since 1997, and wonders if the fire, which made the paper two days late, is the beginning of the end. ""For the time being, I'm going to keep it going," she told Paul. "I don't know for sure what's going to happen. I don't want to see the paper go, but there are things I need time for." (Read more)

Farmland prices are declining in two key states, but don't seem to be heading for a collapse

After years of growth, farmland prices appear to have hit a peak, and could be heading for a decline, but not a bust, according to economists and farm realtors. "It's not a collapse, it's just a maturing," Purdue University economist Chris Hurt told attendees during a recent online webinar, reports Marcia Zarley Taylor of DTN The Progressive Farmer. "In other boom-bust cycles we've seen a demand collapse. We're not talking about that now, and that's giving us the prospect of a soft landing."

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Since 2007, Iowa has had four years of 20 percent to 30 percent land appreciation, but could be 10 percent this year, Taylor reports. In Indiana (right), a typical corn-soybean operator made profits of $357 an acre in 2011, but that number is expected to drop to $267 this year, the sort of drop that depresses land prices. Hurt says the main reasons are that "big growth in ethanol is flattening out, China's appetite for U.S. soybeans is waning as South Americans expand acreage, and the value of the dollar is suddenly gaining steam, making exports more expensive overseas."

Another factor is declining interest rates, writes Taylor. "If 10-year Treasuries inch up from an average of 2.9 percent in 2013 to 3.65 percent in 2016, Hurt estimates Indiana land values could slide about $1,000 an acre. That's from a starting point of about $7,313 at mid-year 2013." (Read more)

Rural places get federal arts grants for design workshops to help improve quality of life

Organizations in rural communities in Kentucky, Florida, Texas and New York were chosen by the Citizens' Institute on Rural Design to host design workshops. "Workshops bring together local leaders, non-profits, community organizations, and citizens with a team of specialists in design, planning, and creative place-making to address design challenges identified by the community," states a release from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Winners were chosen from 30 applicants. Organizations receive "$7,000 to support the workshop, in-kind design expertise and technical assistance valued at $35,000, and additional training through webinars, conference calls, and web-based resources," according to the release. Workshops dates have yet to be announced.

The Central Appalachia Institute for Research and Development, Inc., based in Pikeville, Ky., "will integrate arts and culture into existing community plans, raising awareness about the potential of artisans and craft industries to serve as an economic engine" for Appalachian Kentucky, according to the release.

Two workshops will focus on the role design can play in revitalizing declining downtowns. The Rochester Regional Community Design Center "will focus on physical improvements and economic development strategies" in Lima, N.Y., and the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Suwannee County Extension will focus on redevelopment and rebuilding after a natural disaster, focusing on recent flooding in Live Oak, Fla.

The City of Seguin, Tex., will host a workshop "centered around the design and public health benefits of a new waterfront trail for a low-income community suffering from high rates of obesity and limited options for walking, biking, or transit."

Rural movie theater offers 'sensory-friendly' screenings for children with disabilities

Some children with autism or other disabilities might never get to experience seeing a movie on the big screen, because they have trouble sitting still for that long, or might not be able to adjust to sitting in the dark surrounded by loud noises. But an independently owned theater in rural West Plains, Mo., has decided to do something about it, offering a sensory-friendly experience for movie goers, reports Jennifer Davidson of KSMU Radio in Springfield.
 
During sensory-friendly shows, the Glass Sword Cinema leaves the lights on, sets the sound lower than normal, and "the audience is free to express themselves however they want," Clint Corman, the theater's technical manager, told Davidson. "They can sing along. They can clap. They can dance. There’s not going to be any judgment from people.”

West Plains, with a population of 12,000, might be the only theater in Southern Missouri that offers sensory-friendly shows. Melissa Davenport, of the Burrell Autism Center in Springfield, said she was unaware of any sensory-friendly showings in the 160,000-population Springfield area, reports Davidson. One theater said they would consider it if enough parents asked for the special showings. But at the Glass Sword, "the owners didn’t take a market sample before making their decision...they just did it," reports Davidson. "In doing so, it’s kind of become 'The little theater that could.'" (Read more)

Napolitano: Immigration reform will make U.S. safer, while boosting economy

Comprehensive immigration reform will increase border security, bolster the country's economy, and is great for rural America, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a media call Tuesday. She said the bill will boost small businesses and agriculture, where it will put an end to worker shortages; will protect American workers; and is key to deterring illegal migration.

She said the current system is broken, saying "When you fix it, and do it the right way, it is an overall comprehensive agreement that moves us on a path well-suited for rural America in the 21st Century."

The bill will increase the number of agents and technology available at borders, making borders even safer, said Napolitano, who called border cities some of the safest in the country. It will also provide a better verification system, allowing officials to ascertain who has overstayed their visas, while creating a system to better monitor employers and employees. Increasing border security is one of the main issues Republicans are pushing for with the bill.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who introduced Napolitano, said 700,000 of the 1.1 million agriculture workers are not properly documented. He said that without the bill, the U.S. stands to lose agriculture jobs to other countries. Also, he said, immigrants are twice as likely to start a small business, so passing the bill will fill jobs and create more taxpayers, which will help reduce the federal deficit. "It's important for this country to get this done this year, especially for rural American and the farming community," he said.

Only one question from a journalist was allowed on the conference call, which started 10 to 15 minutes late.

Writer explains how Affordable Care Act will affect rural Americans

When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes full effect next year, it will have a major impact on rural Americans. Steph Larsen, assistant director of organizing for the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs, said she has received a large number of emails from people who say they are confused about the act. In response, she answers a few questions in the Daily Yonder in an attempt to make the act easier to understand (Map by FamiliesUSA)

"Rural Americans have been hit hard by a campaign of fear and misinformation by the detractors of the Affordable Care Act," writes Larsen. "Because of the rampant misinformation, a lot of rural people are understandably confused. If rural folks can get beyond this misinformation and educate themselves with accurate information, it will result in more rural people having comprehensive, affordable health insurance and greater access to health care. This will result in stronger rural health care infrastructure and healthier rural Americans. And that’s good for all of us." (Read more)

Tenn., other states have many stockpiles of chemical that led to deadly explosion in West, Tex.

We reported May 23 that at least 800,000 Americans in the U.S. live within a mile of fertilizer storage sites that house ammonium nitrate, like the one that exploded in West, Tex., killing 14 and injured more than 200 others. But which towns, and states, are most at risk? DTN The Progressive Farmer decided to delve a little deeper, and so far has received information from 17 states -- Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, Oregon, Kansas, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Wisconsin and Georgia.

Many of the stockpiles are found in small cities and towns, with the majority stored in the south and southwest, reports Todd Neeley of DTN. The largest number reported are stored in Tennessee, which has 86 locations. Twenty-four of those locations "stored between 499 tons and 4,999 tons -- about 18 to 147 times the amount of AN that ignited in West."
   
Texas has 70 sites that "have the potential to hold a total maximum daily amount between 55,960 tons and 309,604 tons, or an average of 799 tons to 4,423 tons of AN per facility," reports Neeley. Illinois has the most sites in the Midwest, with 29. Georgia has 28, Kentucky 22, Kansas 20, Oregon 14, and Indiana 12. Some states provided incomplete data, or reported having no locations. DTN's report did not include the names of towns where ammonium nitrate is stored. We suggest you check with your state agencies. (Read more)

Coal industry's not alone in banking on Pacific coal exports; so are members of the Crow Nation

One American Indian tribe's future could hinge on a major coal company's ability to export its coal. The Crow Nation owns a deposit of up to 1.4 billion tons, more coal than the U.S. produces in a year, but its partner, Cloud Peak Energy, needs to win battles with environmentalists to have six export terminals built in the Pacific Northwest for the deposit to be mined, reports Clifford Krauss for The New York Times. (NYT photo by Kevin Moloney: Half the Crow are unemployed)

"Cloud Peak Energy and the Crow signed an initial agreement in January to develop three enormous coal deposits that are both low in sulfur and produce an abundance of heat when burned — exactly what Asian buyers are seeking," reports Krauss. The tribe could earn $10 million over the next five years, and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars more in royalties and other payments, if the agreements is approved by the Interior Department.

Former Crow chairman Cedric Black Eagle, who began contract negotiations with Cloud Peak, told Krauss, “We understand the issue of global warming, but at the same time, because of the economy of the tribe, we are dependent on coal."

"Environmental groups have made the terminals a central focus in their campaign against the coal industry," reports Krauss. As a result, investors have dropped out of the three of the proposed six terminals. Environmental groups filed suit in a federal court in Seattle against Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway and several coal companies "saying coal dust escaping from trains has polluted rivers and lakes in Washington. The new export terminals, they say, would only bring more trains carrying coal to the ports and increase the amount of dust." (Read more)

Appalachian Regional Commission creates new development bank to fund small-business loans

The federal Appalachian Regional Commission is creating a bank that will provide funds to lenders in the region who make loans to small businesses that will foster economic development. Appalachian Community Capital will get $42 million and "is expected to leverage $233 million in private bank capital and help create 2,200 jobs," an ARC press release said. The agency said it will chip in $3.45 million in equity and operating support, will help raise 39 million in debt and equity. The project was announced at the closing session of the Clinton Global Initiative in Chicago. CGI "considers the ACC initiative vital to economic development efforts in Appalachia," the release said.

U.S. banks "have instituted tighter credit requirements for small-business lending, reduced their appetite for risk, and become more sensitive to concentrated credit exposures. When combined with a challenging economic environment, these conditions have left many financially sound businesses seeking new sources of capital," ARC said. "For growing businesses in Appalachia, finding capital is even more difficult, as a number of systemic factors have limited the sources of available capital. According to recent studies, Appalachian small businesses receive only 82 percent of the loans of their comparable counterparts nationally, while businesses in Appalachia's economically distressed counties receive less than 60 percent of the loans of their national counterparts."

The bank will be a valuable resource for Kentucky Highlands Investment Corp., a venture-capital firm that focuses on southeastern Kentucky. “There’s a stigma in Appalachia that says, ‘You’re profoundly rural, you’re profoundly uneducated and you’re remote, and we’re not going to spend the time to get in there and provide you the financing,’” said Ray Moncrief, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the firm, told Vicki Smith of The Associated Press, who noted how KHIC's helped Mike Hurley of London, Ky., convert his metal-stamping business "into a top-tier supplier of satellite dishes." (Read more)

West Virginia activist's struggle with coal industry became a book, and now a movie

A West Virginia woman's journey to push for stricter, safer coal-mining laws was first turned into a book, and now the story of Trish Bragg is being made into a movie, with parts of filming recently taking place in the community of Pie in Mingo County, reports Julia Roberts Goad of the Gilbert Times, a weekly in the southern part of the state near the Kentucky border. (Charleston Gazette photo by Brian Ferguson: Bragg at a public hearing on mountaintop removal in 1998)

Bragg's story was first told in Penny Loeb's book Moving Mountains, which "chronicles the struggle the Pie community has faced since the wells that supplied water to homes ran dry as a result of underground mining," reports Goad. Now, the book is being turned into a movie about "the struggle to find the balance of making a living from coal mining and the responsibility of the coal companies to extract coal while doing as little damage as possible to the land and the people the industry supports."

Author Penny Loeb (Goad photo)

Bragg told Goad, “I am not against coal mining. I was never against mining, I just think it should be done responsibly.” Bragg's journey into the world of coal mining began in 1976 when she moved to West Virginia from North Carolina. In 1994, when her neighbors began losing the source of their water, Bragg began to educate herself "about the state Department of Environmental Protection, mining laws, environmental groups and community activism." (Read more)

N.C. Rural Economic Development Center, a spawn of politics, hits snags under new Republican rule

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The North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center is controlled by politicians, has claimed to create jobs that don't exist, and has spent millions of taxpayer dollars to support big businesses such as Wal-Mart and chain restaurants, reports J. Andrew Curliss in a two-part series in the Raleigh News & Observer. (Curliss photos)

While the center is designed for grants to generate jobs, in its files "Other stories emerge: Legislators influencing where the money goes. People and businesses from across the political landscape getting in on the deals. Political money men benefiting from taxpayer cash, spent with little notice or scrutiny," reports Curliss, who details several examples of politicians receiving grants for businesses they own.

Republicans, in full control of state government for the first time since Reconstruction, want to reduce the center's funding. Billy Ray Hall, who heads the agency, told Curliss, “I eat, sleep and breathe rural North Carolina. Rural North Carolina, I think, deserves the respect of trying to chart their path. They deserve the value of giving them as much as you can to help them make good decisions. And I think that’s what I’ve been trying to do. That’s what the Rural Center’s been trying to do. And we’ve been trying to do it smart.” But Hall may have drawn more Republican ire by reminding new state Budget Director Art Pope, a leading critic, that a center grant had helped his family's discount-store business, which Pope denied but then admitted.

Hall claims the center has created 19,911 jobs in the past five years, but the newspaper found more than 950 jobs from projects that had yet to begin, writes Curliss. Even jobs the center claims to have created are sometimes suspicious, such as a $350,000 water-well grant that would help generate jobs at a new restaurant that had already hired employees. The center’s communications director, Garnet Bass, said in an email message: “I suppose you could argue about whether we’re prematurely saying some of the jobs have been created. ... We think we’re providing the most accurate picture possible for the value of the state investment. It may not be perfect, but we haven’t heard of a better way.”

The center has replied to the stories, in a comment to this blog post.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/06/16/2967240/politicians-powerful-touch-nc.html#storylink=cpy

Midwest-South conflict among Republicans could derail Farm Bill; Obama issues strategic veto threat

UPDATE, 6:55 p.m.: "The White House warned Monday that it would veto the House farm bill as it now stands and signaled strongly that the fastest path to some compromise this summer would be by taking savings from crop insurance to offset Republican-backed cuts from food stamps, Rogers reports. "The most severe of the food-stamp savings would come from re-imposing tighter income limits and an outdated asset test that could force more than two million beneficiaries off the rolls. The estimated savings are $11.5 billion over the next 10 years, and the administration made note that its own crop insurance reforms could save an almost equal sum, $11.7 billion. . . . The administration’s statement seemed designed to serve two purposes: put down a veto marker that will give liberal Democrats some comfort but at the same time try to keep the process moving into conference with the Senate."

As the House version of the Farm Bill heads to the floor Tuesday, corn and soybean lobbies are "backing a Midwest floor challenge to the new price-loss program crafted by the House Agriculture Committee, which is already struggling to win what’s expected to be a close vote on final passage," David Rogers reports for Politico. "Adding salt to the wound was Friday’s release of a paid-for academic paper commissioned by the Environmental Working Group but also rooted in the Midwest and highly critical of the same price-loss program — most important to Southern producers," especially of rice and peanuts.

Rogers writes that the current state of play illustrates "a destructive South-Midwest divide among Republicans and the outsize impact of a small stable of academics hired to punch holes in the current system.  Corn and soybeans are plainly hoping to increase their leverage going into conference with the Senate," which has passed its version. "But in doing so, they could make it harder for [Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank] Lucas to get there in the first place."

The Midwest-oriented amendment would change how target prices are set "and what acreage will be used to calculate payments if markets collapse," Rogers reports. "Left out of the corn-and-beans letter is any mention of the fact that the same two commodities stand to gain richly from a far more expensive 'shallow-loss' subsidy program in the Senate bill. With much of agriculture holding hands just to get across the House floor, the hardball tactics are risky. . . . If the Farm Bill collapses, it’s very unlikely that Congress will again approve a broad extension of current law as it did last winter.
Crop insurance and nutrition programs would survive because of separate authorizations. But there’s broad consensus that commodity programs could be lost given the appetite for spending reductions."

House passage of the bill is in doubt partly because "More than half of the current representatives have never cast a vote on a farm bill," Agri-Pulse reports. Amendments must be filed by Monday, so the Rules Committee can set terms for debate. Wednesday and Thursday, look for "a series of knockdown fights," Rogers writes.

Kentucky county exemplifies decline of coal industry in Central Appalachia

The grim prospects for the coal industry in Central Appalachia are illustrated by the Kentucky county that was the state's most dependent on coal -- until last year, when the county lost 63 percent of its coal jobs and 45 percent of its coal production. Bill Estep and John Cheves of the Lexington Herald Leader looked at Knott County for the second major installment of their series, "50 Years of Night," marking the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harry Caudill's book on the region, Night Comes to the Cumberlands.

"There were only 330 people employed at coal mines by the end of the year, down from more than 1,300 a decade before, according to the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet," the reporters write. The county clerk says people blame President Obama's "War on Coal," but "The chief force behind the coal industry's precipitous slide in Eastern Kentucky was very cheap natural gas, which enticed utilities to switch from coal to gas, analysts said. . . . Analysts project that coal production in Eastern Kentucky and throughout Central Appalachia will continue a steep slide in the next few years regardless of the mix of environmental rules, said Sean O'Leary, an analyst with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy." (Read more)

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/06/16/2679110/in-eastern-kentucky-coal-mines.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/06/16/2679110/in-eastern-kentucky-coal-mines.html#storylink=cpy

Arizona Legislature grudgingly expands Medicaid

Brewer lectured Obama about immigration
when he visited in 2011, but she embraced
his health plan's expansion of Medicaid.
(Associated Press photo)

Kicking and screaming, the Arizona Legislature allowed Republican Gov. Jan Brewer to expand Medicaid in the state under federal health-care reform yesterday after she threatened to veto any bill not accomplishing the move, then called a special session to force lawmakers to act.

A handful of Republicans joined Democrats to pass the measure. "Medicaid amendments intended to defeat or change the legislation — all beaten back by the bipartisan coalition — included a repeal of the hospital assessment that helps fund the expansion, an anti-abortion provision, a requirement for a two-thirds majority approval and proposals that would roll back expansion if federal funding fell short of what’s promised," The Arizona Republic reported. "Conservatives, some calling themselves the 'minority party' though they outnumber Democrats, complained that the process shut out the public and most members of the GOP, which hold majorities in both chambers."

"Unique factors affecting Arizona's Medicaid program . . . played a role in Brewer's decision to set aside her staunch opposition to Obamacare," Jeffrey Young writes on The Huffington Post. "In 2011, a federal court allowed Brewer to freeze enrollment of adults without children into Medicaid to resolve a budget crunch [so the] federally financed expansion enables Arizona to reopen Medicaid without having to pay about half the cost. . . . Moreover, Arizona expanded Medicaid to cover all adults below the poverty line based on a ballot initiative approved by voters in 2000." (Read more)

Another bill is in the works to eliminate delivery of mail on Saturdays, except packages

A powerful House committee chairman has proposed a new postal reform bill that would allow the U.S. Postal Service to eliminate Saturday mail delivery. Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who heads the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is seeking Democratic votes by allowing USPS "to scrap an annual $6 billion payment to pre-fund health costs for future retirees, a major concession that is likely to help the bill’s chances in the Senate," Lisa Rein reports for The Washington Post. "But Issa’s new draft also keeps proposals that have divided lawmakers. Democrats are likely to oppose any language allowing layoffs, and members of both parties who represent rural districts have pushed back against five-day delivery."

Last year the Senate passed a postal reform bill that would have guaranteed six-day delivery for two years, but Issa's bill never got a vote in the full House. Aides told Rein that his new bill won't be formally introduced for months, while he tries to work with labor unions, rural representatives and other groups that fought him last year.

Issa's draft would allow USPS "to move forward with five-day delivery of letters and second- and third-class mail but continue delivering packages six days for at least five years," Rein reports. That resembles "a failed attempt by Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe to drop Saturday mail delivery without congressional approval." USPS makes money delivering packages. (Read more) 

Missouri passed bill to allow foreign land ownership, apparently to clear way for sale of Smithfield

"Last-minute legislative maneuvers in Missouri may remove one potential legal obstacle to Shuanghui International Holdings' proposed $4.7 billion purchase of Smithfield Foods Inc, which would be China's largest purchase to date of a U.S. company," report Lisa Baertlein and P.J. Huffstutter of Reuters. 

State Rep. Casey Guernsey, whose rural county in northern Missouri has Smithfield and its pork-producing subsidiaries as its largest taxpayers, passed a bill that would allow 1 percent of the state's agricultural lands to be in foreign ownership, Baertlein and Huffstutter report. "Missouri and at least seven other U.S. states -- Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin -- have oft-overlooked laws that prohibit foreign ownership of agricultural land."

The legislation was filed at the behest of foreign interests, "who already effectively hold about 91,000 acres out of the state's estimated 29.1 million farmland acres and wanted the laws changed," Reuters reports. Guernsey's bill and a companion measure "were passed by the legislature on the last day of its session, less than two weeks before the Smithfield deal was announced on May 29." Gov. Jay Nixon still needs to sign the bill, and the state's Agriculture Department has to approve the land sales. (Read more)

Writer says broadband Internet is key to business success in rural communities

There has been much talk in the last decade about the need to get more broadband to rural America, and more lately about the large number of rural residents who still lack quality Internet service. Entrepreneur Diane Smith details in the Daily Yonder about how she used technology to start up a multi-million dollar company from the comfort of her home in Whitefish, Mont.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration chart

The Smith family moved from Washington, D.C., with the belief "that we could make a living just about anywhere that had fast and reliable communications connectivity, and we found it in Whitefish," she writes. Smith co-founded Vubiquity, which she says is the largest global provider of multi-platform video services, by raising more than $30 million through the Internet, crediting local businesses and residents with much of her success. "I don’t believe we would have had nearly such swift success had we been located in a more populated community or state."

Her story shows the power and potential of high-speed Internet, she writes: "Broadband connected businesses bring in approximately $300,000 more in annual median revenues than non-broadband adopting businesses. Nearly one in three businesses earns revenue from online sales that account for $411.4 billion in annual revenues for U.S. companies. Sixty-five percent of home-based businesses use the Internet to stay in touch with customers, while 59 percent advertise or sell their goods online, and 98 percent of U.S. counties had at least one high-tech business establishment in 2011." (Read more)

The recently passed Senate Farm Bill includes a pilot program to test ultra-fast Internet in five rural areas, and the Federal Communications Commission has said it will put $485 million as part of a public-private venture to expand broadband to rural areas.

Montana town boosts local economy with shooting contest inspired by a movie

A small Montana town, dubbed the City of Trees, sits along the Yellowstone River and is home to about 1,700 people. But the residents of Forsyth found an interesting way to boost the local economy, courtesy of Hollywood. Every Father's Day weekend, Forsyth hosts the Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match, a long-range shooting event utilizing old-style, high-caliber buffalo rifles that was inspired by the 1990 film "Quigley Down Under," reports Brett French of the Billings Gazette. (Gazette photo by James Woodcock: Shooters practice Thursday for this weekend's event)

Last year 635 shooters from 40 states competed alongside ones who traveled from across the globe, making it the largest event of its kind anywhere, reports French. Add in family members, and others who attend but don't compete, and the event, now in its 22nd year, brings in quite a bit of money to the small town. “It’s world renowned. We get customers from Germany, Australia, England and New Zealand.” said motel owner Colleen Hoppert, who said she books all 81 rooms for the event, sometimes getting reservations one year in advance.

Match director Buz Coker, a former scoutmaster, told French a vending site set up by the local Boy Scout troop makes enough money to fund a year's worth of scouting events.  The Forsyth Rifle and Pistol Club uses the event to fund $1,000 scholarships to local high school students. “It’s a great opportunity for some of the local organizations to raise some money,” said Tina Sears of the Forsyth Chamber of Commerce. (Read more)

Utah waging war on weeds deadly to livestock, offers app to alert adjoining states

Utah has started a $1.3 million war on weeds to protect livestock and food supplies, and has included a phone application that lets users connect with residents in nearby states to alert them to weeds migrating across borders, reports Taylor Anderson for the Salt Lake Tribune. (Tribune photo by Al Hartman: Leafy spurge)

One dangerous weed, called leafy spurge, contains a substance poisonous to livestock, while another known as cheatgrass dries out in the summer, and acts like a highly flammable fuel that contributed to record wildfires Utah had last year, notes Anderson. Commissioner of Agriculture and Food Leonard Blackham said if left unchecked, "An entire area can become basically unproductive for livestock, for food production or for wildlife or even for meaningful recreation."

The free smart phone app lets users "identify invasive species with their phones and report their location, which state employees then verify." The app has already been used to identify plants that are spreading into Utah from Arizona and Idaho. (Read more)

As many as 400,000 seabirds die each year in fishing nets, protective group says

At least 400,000 seabirds, representing 81 different kinds of birds, are killed every year by fishing vessels that deploy gill nets, and figures could be much higher than that, because much of the data on deaths was non-existent or too old to use, according to a report by BirdLife International, reports Michael Wines for The New York Times. (Alaska Journal of Commerce photo by Margaret Bauman: Gill net fishing vessels in Alaska)

Among the birds killed yearly are penguins, ducks and some critically endangered species such as the waved albatross, reports Wines. Gill nets are anchored in the water by weights and buoys, and are designed to snare fish by their gills, but can catch any creature that is too large to swim through the mesh, including sea turtles. porpoises, seals and whales. Most of the deaths involve seabirds who dive into the ocean for fish, but can't see the nearly invisible nets. To read the full report click here.

Barley-growing couple in N.Y. boost craft-beer trade by starting the state's first malting house

When the New York State Legislature passed a bill last year "that will eventually require ales and lagers labeled 'New York Beer' to contain 90 percent locally grown ingredients," the lawmakers apparently forgot that barley can't be used for brewing until it is malted, so a couple in Batavia are starting a malting house, the only one in the state, as well as growing barley, Howard Owens reports for The Batavian.

"Ted and Patricia Hawley . . . are sure others are coming, with anticipation of a craft brew boom in the state thanks to the new rules," Owens writes. "The farm beer license created by the bill is modeled after the winery license, which requires local ingredients and allows for tastings, on-site sales, bigger production runs and statewide distribution."

"This craft brewing industry is phenomenal," Ted Hawley told Owens. "There's no rules. I mean, there could be up to 30 ingredients in brews, from nuts and berries to honey, to apples. There's no rules and there are some great craft brews that are being processed right now in people's garages. This farm brewing bill will offer them an opportunity to open up larger and sell their brews." (Read more)

Shortage of primary care doctors worst in rural areas

Despite a critical shortage of primary care physicians in the U.S., only 25 percent of newly educated doctors go into the field, and less than 5 percent go on to practice in rural areas, says a study by researchers at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. Rural Americans account for 16 percent of the U.S. population.

The report, online in Academic Medicine,  suggests that not only are we facing a primary care shortage, but also that the problem is not likely to be solved soon. In addition to finding that just 4.8 percent of the medical education system's graduates practiced in rural areas, 198 institutions (26 percent) produced no rural physicians and 283 institutions (37 percent) produced no Federally Qualified Health Center or Rural Health Clinic physicians, which were created to enhance the provision of primary care services in under-served communities.

“If residency programs do not ramp up the training of these physicians the shortage in primary care, especially in remote areas, will get worse,” said Dr. Candice Chen, lead author of the study. “The study’s findings raise questions about whether federally funded graduate medical education institutions are meeting the nation’s need for more primary care physicians.”

The U.S. is producing primary care physicians at rates that are “abysmally low” and unless changes are made to the system, the nation will have an even greater shortfall of primary care doctors just as the Affordable Care Act ramps up demand for these services, Chen said in a news release. In some states, the additional need for primary care doctors as a result of Medicaid expansion exacerbates the problem.

The study's authors said policymakers should take a hard look at the skewed incentives and other factors that have led to the current primary care crisis and develop a more accountable graduate medical education system. It is critical to find a better balance in medical specialties and more primary care physicians to build an effective, affordable health system.

Foundations still shortchange rural America

Seven years ago, Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said foundations were not giving enough to rural America, and that prompted the Council on Foundations to hold a summit about the issue. Former President Bill Clinton held a similar gathering and lectured foundations. There was hope for increased rural philanthropy, but the Great Recession hit, and foundations' giving declined as their endowments shrank.

Now, those assets have largely regained their value, but foundations are doing no better by rural community development corporations, Rick Cohen writes in Nonprofit Quarterly. He says even the best rural CDCs "have a hard row to hoe in tapping foundation support. It is doubly challenging because foundations have started to lose interest in supporting housing and community development. A foundation sector that has long recovered from its recessionary downturn has the capital to meet Sen. Baucus’s long-forgotten challenge and to reinvest in the stabilization of American’s urban and rural communities. In the aftermath of the recession, now is not the time for foundations to pull back, either from rural or from housing and community development."

To back up his argument, Cohen looked at giving to rural CDCs in two networks, the Rural LISC program of the Local Initiatives Support Corp. and the NeighborWorks Rural Initiative. He found that foundations "lean increasingly toward lending and capital investments, rather than program and general operating grant support," Cohen writes. He lists the biggest rural grantmakers:

"The top 10 foundations in this list account for more than 52.2 percent of foundation grant and loan investments," Cophen writes. He noted that many of the top grantmakers for community and economic development are regional or state-based. "Scarcely present in this list are those foundations typically found among the top overall grantmakers in the nation. . . . A more generalized rural community economic development analysis of foundation grantmaking conducted a few years ago that examined grantmaking between 2004 and 2008 had Kellogg as the nation’s second largest rural development grantmaker, though it’s not so in this analysis of grantmaking to the LISC and NeighborWorks rural groups. Others with high rank in that prior analysis that do not rank highly in this analysis are the Northwest Area Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the C.S. Mott Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. (Read more)

In 2011, Cohen reported that as philanthropy rebounded with the economic recovery, rural giving actually shrank. That year, the Council on Foundations and the U.S. Department of Agriculture agreed to work together to improve the rural economy. Grant writers, get busy.

Oregon day camp gives kids a taste of farming life

Children in Oregon have the opportunity to spend part of their summer learning what it's like to work on a farm, while also having fun and getting a valuable lesson in rural education. A farm near Lebanon, in the northwest part of the state, runs a day camp that lets children spend six hours a day for one week to experience life on the farm, reports Jennifer Moody for the Albany Democrat-Herald. (D-H photo by David Patton: A hay slide at the camp)

Camp participants get the opportunity to feed, groom and play with chickens, rabbits, sheep, goats, a horse, and baby American Guinea Hogs, reports Moody. Other experiences include gathering eggs, milking goats, making cheese, learning to felt, and seeing how wool becomes cloth. Activities are also designed to allow them to learn through having fun, such as how ecology works in worm composting, and exploring watercraft designs by building tiny stick rafts, and carving boats from zucchini. (Read more)

Grants help support arts in rural communities

ArtPlace America, comprising 13 national and regional foundations and six of the country's largest banks, recently awarded 54 grants, including five ranging from $150,000 to $536,740 for "Using Art to Bring New Life to Rural Communities" to organizations in Homer, Alaska; Ajo, Ariz; Lanesboro, Minn.; Prattsville, N.Y.; and Uniontown, Wash. Four other rural communities -- Juneau and Douglas, Alaska; Blue Lake, Calif.; and Neah Bay, Wash. received grants ranging from $250,000 to $500,000, according to a news release from ArtPlace.

"Rural communities often have excellent arts and culture assets that are underutilized, unknown to those outside the area and possibly even falling into disrepair. A relatively small investment can leverage these assets to produce a real improvement in quality of place." George Abbott reports for the Daily Yonder. With so many young people wanting to leave rural America for urban cities, "art is a great method of creating a vibrant and diverse community that will encourage them to stay or return to a rural area. (Read more)

A $200,000 grant to the town of Prattsville in south-central New York will be used to help the local art center and residency recover from Hurricane Irene flood damage, to engage artists-in-residency in becoming involved in town planning and design, and to help the town recover from the disaster through public exhibitions and events, according to ArtPlace. (Photo via Daily Yonder: Prattsville Art Center)

The largest rural grant -- $536,740 -- went to create the Sonoran Desert Retreat Center and Residencies, which will be an arts residency program featuring traditional and contemporary Tohono O'odham and Mexican artists, as well as the tri-national border-themed arts installation, according to ArtPlace.

Another grant, for $313,000, will be used in Lanesboro, Minn. The town of 754 in the southeastern part of the state wants to transform the entire town into an arts campus, which is "the vision of engaging a rural region and its visitors in the arts while simultaneously promoting economic development," reports the Republican-Leader in Preston, Minn. (Lanesboro Arts Center photo: St. Mane Theatre)

Border security becomes focus of immigration debate

As the Senate began debate Wednesday on the immigration bill, which could provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants, the focal point turned to border security, which Republicans said must be addressed before they will vote for the bill, Julia Preston and Ashley Parker report for The New York Times. (NYT photo: Sen. Ran Paul, R-Ky.)

“In order to bring conservatives to this cause, those who want immigration reform must understand that a real solution must ensure that our borders are secure,” said Sen. Rand Paul, who, like many conservatives, said he supports the pathway to citizenship for immigrants, but holds border security as the more important issue, reports Preston and Parker.

"The current bill would give the Department of Homeland Security six months to present plans to extend border fencing and achieve effective control of the Southwest border, defined as continuous surveillance along its length and 90 percent effectiveness in stopping illegal crossings," reports Preston and Parker. "Once those plans are presented, illegal immigrants could apply for provisional status. The bill includes $4.5 billion in border financing in the first five years."

"If the security goals had not been met after five years, a commission would be created to ensure border officials met them," reports Preston and Parker. "After 10 years, provisional immigrants could apply for permanent residency — the first step toward citizenship — if the border plans were fully operational, the fencing was completed, mandatory electronic verification for new workers was in place nationwide and an electronic exit system checked foreigners departing through airports and seaports."

Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, filed an amendment that would "require certification from Homeland Security and the top federal auditor that his border goals had been met for one year before provisional immigrants could start the path to citizenship," reports Preston and Parker. (Read more)

FEMA declines to help West, Tex., rebuild public facilities damaged in fertilizer-plant explosion

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it will not help rebuild roads, a school and the sewage system in West, Tex., a town of 2,800 that was badly damaged by the explosion at the local fertilizer plant in April. “The impact from this event is not of the severity and magnitude that warrants a major disaster declaration,” FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate told Gov. Rick Perry in a letter.

"FEMA has provided aid to individual residents and households, but a major disaster declaration . . . would provide money needed to rebuild parts of the city," Terrence Henry of NPR reports. "The agency will also not provide unemployment assistance, crisis counseling, legal services and other aid." In another letter, FEMA said “The remaining cost for permanent work is within the capabilities of the state and affected local governments.” The letter was obtained by StateImpact, a consortium of NPR and some of its state affiliates.

"West Independent School District carried a $60 million insurance policy, but its damages in the blast would only cover about half of the estimated $117.4 million needed to renovate or replace the damaged buildings, school officials have said," Tommy Witherspoon and Regina Dennis of the Waco Tribune Herald report. (Photo of West Intermediate School by Rod Aydelotte, WTH)

Dallas Morning News columnist Todd Robberson writes, "The fact that FEMA's response was in a letter sent directly to Gov. Rick Perry, an ardent foe of just about everything federal, strongly suggests partisan politics is heavily at play here. This stinks." (Read more)

Taxpayers lose millions as coal leases draw only one bid and payments aren't collected

The Department of the Interior is failing to collect tens of millions of dollars in lease payments for coal mining on federal land, and the department's Bureau of Land Management is shortchanging the government money while allowing a handful of business to have a monopoly in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, according to a report released Tuesday, reports John Broder for The New York Times. (National Mining Association photo: Powder River Basin coal)

Despite a rule adopted in the 1980s to ensure competition, the report found that 80 percent of sales in the past 20 years had received only one bid, reports Broder. "The report said the process for computing the value of the leases was faulty, costing the government millions. At the current rate of coal leasing, the inspector general found, every penny-a-ton undervaluation costs taxpayers $3 million."

The report also found that the BLM allows coal companies "to expand their lease holdings by as much as 960 acres with no competitive bidding and little oversight" and has "approved 45 such lease modifications since 2000 without adequate documentation, potentially costing taxpayers $60 million," Broder notes.

An independent study conducted last year found that Interior's failure to secure fair market value for coal mined on public lands had deprived taxpayers of almost $30 billion over the previous 30 years, reports Broder. The department disputes that figure. The full report can be viewed here.

Some worry Texas housing development could displace world's largest bat colony

For 10,000 years Mexican free-tail bats have spent the spring and summer in Bracken Cave in rural Texas just north of San Antonio. The popular tourist destination is home to the world's largest bat colony, with an estimated 10 to 20 million bats emerging from the cave every night to blacken the skies with their vast numbers. But developers are planning to build a 1,545-acre, 2,500-home subdivision near the cave, a move that many feel could threaten the existence of the bats, and put residents in harms way, reports Colin McDonald for San Antonio Express-News. (Express-News photo by Bill Calzada: Millions of bats emerge from the cave)

Bat Conservation International, which owns the cave, said the bats can carry rabies, but they also eat several million pounds of insects every night, benefiting farmers whose crops could be damaged by the insects if the cave is forced to be sealed, notes McDonald. Plus, there is concern about where the bats might migrate if they could no longer use the cave. As a result, state representatives are trying to slow down development with a proposed bill that would "put a moratorium on development within five miles of the 697-acre preserve that surrounds the cave." (Read more)

More than half of rural workers hold middle-skills jobs, which don't require a four-year degree

Rural Americans are big at middle-skill jobs, which require at least some on-the-job training, an apprenticeship or similar experience, or post-secondary education that doesn't consist of a four-year degree. More rural Americans hold middle-skills jobs than do their urban counterparts, and the percentage of rural workers holding such jobs has not changed, while numbers have declined in urban areas, according to research by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. (Graph: Current Population Survey)

Fifty-one percent of rural workers held middle skills jobs in 2012, compared to 42 percent in urban areas, Carsey reports. In urban areas, white, Hispanic, and black workers were equally likely to hold middle-skill jobs, but in rural areas Hispanics were substantially more likely to hold a middle-skill job than white or black workers. Older workers are more likely than younger workers to hold middle-skill jobs.  The full report can be viewed here.