Writer goes from one end of nation to other to see what holds it together; ruralites stand out

Philip Caputo, a novelist and former reporter for the Chicago Tribune, where he won a Pulitzer Prize, set off across the country on a four-month trip -- visiting mostly rural areas -- to interview Americans about what they feel holds the country together. What he found was that most people, especially those in rural areas, felt a sense of family and community was the binding force in the country, Kevin Nance reports for the Tribune. Caputo's finding can be read in The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean. (Random House photo)

Caputo said of ruralites: "They were less likely to identify something abstract, like our system of government, or the government itself, or the U.S. Constitution or whatever. They were much more likely to point to their town, their family or the neighbors, all of them pulling together in hard times and sharing good times," Nance reports. Other topics people wanted to discuss included immigration, jobs and politics.

Caputo said he got the idea for the book in 1996 when he visited a remote island off the Alaskan coast, Nance writes. Caputo said, "I happened to go by a school where most of the students were Eskimo children. They were pledging allegiance to the flag, and it struck me that they were doing so under the same government as the children of Cuban immigrants down in Key West, where I had been earlier in the year. It just astonished me that in a country so vast those children were under the same government, spoke the same language and were united in the same kind of society. Obviously there are cultural differences between the two, but the American society is the same. And I just thought to myself, what holds a place so vast and diverse together?" (Read more) The map, from Caputo's website, details his journey from Key West north; click on it for a larger version.

Pa. festival has celebrated rural life for 24 years

A festival in southern Pennsylvania has been celebrating rural life for 24 years. The Rural Life Festival is scheduled for this weekend in Newburg, about 37 miles west of Harrisburg. Free events focus on cultural history and Americana, Denny Clopper reports for the Valley Times-Star in Shippensburg, Pa., about 11 miles from Newburg. (Photo by Matthew O'Haren of The Sentinel in Carlisle, Pa.: Making butter at the 2012 festival)

Organizer Omar Barnhart told Clopper, “Back in July 1989 it began with some people who wanted a special day. It's a great event for the community, so the people can come out and learn how things were done in the older or past days."

The highlight of this year's festival is old-fashioned butter making, which Barnhart says "starts at the beginning – milking the cow – and follows through the churning process after an old-fashioned hand-cranked cream separator is used to separate milk and cream," Clopper reports. Other attractions consist of farming displays and demonstrations, broom-making, grain threshing, turning raw grain into bread, sheep dog herding, a working blacksmith, a horse drawn binder, a functioning steam engine, plowing demonstrations, quilting, sheep shearing, homemade foods, a pedal tractor pull, horse drawn wagon rides, and a bluegrass and gospel concert. (Read more)

New firm looking to buy rural telephone companies

If you’re a customer of an independent, rural telephone company, there’s a good chance it will be getting a buyout offer soon. Five rural telcos -- based in South Dakota, North Dakota and Texas -- in March teamed up to form USConnect Holdings, a company designed to acquire other rural and independent communications providers, Joan Engebretson reports for Telecompetitor, which describes itself as "a community of professionals with a passion for telecom and broadband."

A spokesperson for USConnect told Engebretson, “As the industry consolidates and evolves, the way to keep rural America a viable place to live, work and play is with a strong communications infrastructure. This group does that today and wants to make sure these types (of communications services) are available for rural consumers.” The spokesperson declined to say which companies USConnect was interested in purchasing.

The spokesperson said, “The existing business models of rural telecom companies (are) changing. There are new opportunities and challenges and every communications company in America is aligning (its) resources with solid business plans. As (the industry) evolves, the company will evolve with it,” Engebretson reports. (Read more)

House Republicans plan test votes to split Farm Bill

UPDATE, July 11: "House leaders became convinced Wednesday they have enough votes to pass a farm-only version," Chris Clayton reports. "Congressmen will debate and vote on the farm-only bill without a chance to amend it on Thursday." (Read more)

UPDATE, July 10: "Clearly there was some sort of problem for House leaders in whipping votes because as of Wednesday morning, there was no bill posted on the House Rules Committee website suggesting a new farm bill is coming to the floor," Chris Clayton of DTN The Progressive Farmer reports. The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union came out against the split, "a political high-wire act that has split the agriculture community badly and helped to solidify Democratic opposition," Rogers reports.

House Republicans continue to move toward splitting their farm bill, putting food stamps into a separate measure and breaking the rural-urban alliance that has passed such bills for almost 50 years. Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma said today that he agrees with the strategy, but only if it can gain a House majority of 218 votes, which is in doubt.

"Prodded by his leadership . . . Lucas said Tuesday he would support splitting his farm bill to allow separate votes on the nutrition title to appease conservatives — a strategy promoted by Majority Leader Eric Cantor and the Heritage Foundation," David Rogers reports for Politico. But Rogers notes that senior Republicans on the committee may not be on board, and Lucas said later, "If there is no assurance of success, why try the effort?"

To see if they have the votes, House GOP leaders planned to hold some test votes this afternoon, "and it was still too early to know the outcome," Rogers writes. He notes that splitting the bill could "throw away what leverage the House has with the farm bill to demand some reforms in food stamps from the Senate," which is controlled by Democrats and has voted for much smaller food-stamp cuts.

"The Rules Committee is expected to post the text Tuesday night and meet Wednesday," with a vote before the August recess, reports Matt Fuller of Roll Call, citing a leadership aide. The bill would include "a repeal of the 1949 law that requires the passage or extension of a farm bill."

The top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, Collin Peterson of Minnesota, told The Hill that splitting the bill would get more House votes but kill it in a House-Senate conference, which would endorse only $5 billion in food-stamp cuts, not enough to pass the House, which wants about $20 billion. He also noted that a broad coalition of farm lobbies wants a combined bill, and "When 532 groups send you a letter saying don't do this, it's pretty stupid to do this I think." Peterson said. (Read more)

Oil and gas sites reported over 6,000 spills last year

More than 6,000 spills and other mishaps were reported at onshore oil and gas sites in 2012, an average of 16 each day. That was a 17 percent increase since 2010, a period in which drilling rose 40 percent. However, the actual number of spills could be higher, because many states exclude spill amounts, and other states don't require all spills to be recorded, Mike Soraghan reports for Environment & Energy News. Overall, 15.6 million gallons of oil, fracking fluid, wastewater and other liquids were reported spilled at production sites last year. About 33 percent of the spill volume from well sites was reported to be recovered.

"North Dakota had the highest number of spills last year, 1,129, and one of its dominant producers, Continental Resources Inc., had more reported spills than any other company," Soraghan reports. "But industry officials say that's likely because companies in North Dakota have to report more spills than in other states. In North Dakota, they have to report any spill of more than 1 barrel (42 gallons). In Texas, the threshold is five barrels. And in Oklahoma and Montana, it's 10 barrels." States such as Colorado, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania often exclude spill amounts in reports.

North Dakota officials said nearly 80 percent of the state's spills were contained to the well site, while Utah companies reported that 78 percent were contained, and only 38 percent were contained in Colorado, Soraghan reports. Continental had the most reported spills, 233, with 90 of those being less than five barrels. Occidental Petroleum had the second-highest with 207, followed by BP PLC with 190, XTO and Exxon Mobil with a combined 172, and COG Operating at 122. (Read more)

La. councilman wants to ban gay flags on city land

It may be okay to fly Mardi Gras flags on government property in Lafayette, La., but one local Republican politician is drawing the line at rainbow-colored gay pride flags. "City-Parish Councilman Andy Naquin is drafting a proposal that would limit the types of flags that could be flown on government property" after receiving a complaint from a veteran about the recent hoisting of a rainbow flag Jun 30 during a gay pride gathering, Claire Taylor reports for The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette. (Advertiser photo by Leslie Westbrook: The gay pride flag is raised during Pride in the Park in Lafayette)

Naquin told Taylor, "I had to agree with him. Government flag poles really should be meant to fly only government flags." But he said that he "expects the ordinance would allow only the flying of American, Louisiana and Acadian/LCG flags, and possibly Mardi Gras flags, on LCG property," the Advertiser reports.

Amanda Kelley, president of the Acadiana OUTspoken Alliance, a group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual people, said the proposal "seems like a violation of freedom of speech.” Part of the veteran's complaint was that the American flag was taken down to make room for the rainbow flag, but Kelley said the American flag was not taken down during the gathering, and that some of their members are veterans. (Read more)

Kentucky dairy farmers, state program team up with Wal-Mart to create, promote in-state milk brand

A program in Kentucky is partnering farmers with a major retail chain to help promote local foods while returning money to local agriculture producers. Monday, Agriculture Commissioner James Comer unveiled Udderly Kentucky milk, which "is 100 percent sourced from Kentucky dairy farms and completely processed in Kentucky," and will be sold in 32 Wal-Mart stores in the central and southern parts of the state.

Comer said he hopes the program, which returns a 7-percent-per-gallon premium to every participating farmer, will revitalize the dairy industry in a state where the number of dairy farmers has dropped from 1,500 to around 800 in the last 13 years. Prairie Farms Dairy in Somerset, which processes the milk, is buying milk from 105 farmers.

 Udderly Kentucky milk is part of the state's 10-year-old Kentucky Proud program, which promotes buying food produced in the state. "This initiative has the potential for more direct farm impact than any program in Kentucky Proud history," Comer said. "A lot of people don’t know that milk that is processed in Kentucky may still be milk that is shipped in from surrounding states." (Read more)

Deadline to apply for Mining Country Institute in northern Wis. and Mich. extended until Friday

The Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources has extended the deadline to register for its Mining Country Institute until Friday. The institute, which will be held Aug. 20-24, is described as an expenses-paid learning expedition that will cover environment, natural resource and economic issues in northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Participants will travel to mines, communities and reservations, and discussion topics include hydraulic fracturing and hard-rock sulfide mining, the politics of extraction, the back story of the mining boom, Native American lands and tradition caught in the crossfire, and concerned scientists and citizens who became active in monitoring the environment.

Wisconsin is close to opening its first open-pit iron mine, which has drawn sharp criticism from environmentalists and Native Americans in the area. West-central Wisconsin has also become the center of sand mining, also called frac sand. For more information on the Mining Country Institute, or to apply, click here.

Veteran reporter offers Congress some ideas for Farm Bill compromises on SNAP, crop insurance

Congress needs to come to a compromise on the recently failed Farm Bill, veteran congressional reporter David Rogers writes for Politico, and he offers some granualr ideas after starting with the big picture: "After two seasons of failure, American agriculture is at a genuine crossroads in Congress. Will it continue to be whittled down by the left and the right? Or can it go up the middle with compromises that revive the urban-rural coalition so important to past farm bills?"

Rogers, left, notes that since the 1985 Farm Bill set a $2,000 limit on assets to receive for food stamps, that number remains the same, while during that time Iowa farmland has gone from $1,000 an acre to $8,000 an acre, and a top-selling John Deere tractor has gone from costing $54,000 to just under $200,000.

"Twenty-eight years later, the whole political and agriculture landscape has changed," Rogers writes. "But the $2,000 asset test remains, ignored by most states but now resurrected by House Republicans to wring savings from food stamps. Hundreds of thousands of households, who that otherwise qualify for food aid, would no longer be eligible. Parents, wanting to preserve some savings to meet unanticipated housing or medical costs, would have to spend down their cash reserves to below $2,000 to get back SNAP benefits for their children."

Adjusted for inflation, the $2,000 asset test would be $4,300 today. "Among all the contradictions in the Farm Bill, this stands out the most," Rogers writes, "because of the impact on the working poor and because assets are something all farmers understand — given the fickle nature of their livelihood and the bankers who control the loans needed to plant each year."

Last year the House Rules Committee blocked an amendment by Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), which "included a provision to double the allowed assets from $2,000 to $4,000 and exempt family cars needed to get to work, for example," Rogers writes. This year Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) created an amendment that "opened the door for states to toughen work requirements for food stamp recipients and share any savings that might result from culling the rolls," that helped lead to the bill's failure to pass.

"Finding some compromise through the food stamp asset test poses its own challenges," Rogers concedes. "An update could require as much as $5 billion in new offsets to keep faith with the House’s 10-year goal of $40 billion in new deficit reduction," Rogers writes. "But the House only narrowly rejected far bigger cuts from crop insurance subsidies last month. And there is the potential that a reform amendment could draw back support from both parties for passage." To make his case, Rogers analyzes crop insurance:

In 2012, taxpayers paid $264 million to cover almost $7.8 billion in liability for sometimes large, wealthy operations, Rogers writes. Catastrophic policies "would almost certainly have to be included in any attempt to find savings from crop insurance." President Obama’s 2014 budget "estimates that $4.2 billion could be saved over 10 years by asking all farmers to pay 3 percentage points more on any premium that is now subsidized at a rate of more than 50 percent. Together with changes in [the program], this would go a long way toward offsetting the cost of updating the food stamp asset test. . . . A 3 percentage point drop in the subsidy rate would be about a 9 percent increase for the farmer, but still a matter of pennies per bushel." (Read more)

Fungal disease with no cure spreads in Southwest; each year it kills about 160 and disables thousands

A disease with no cure is spreading in the Southwestern U.S. Each year there are more than 20,000 reported cases of Coccidioidomycosis, "an insidious airborne fungal disease in which microscopic spores in the soil take flight on the wind or even a mild breeze to lodge in the moist habitat of the lungs and, in the most extreme instances, spread to the bones, the skin, the eyes," and sometimes the brain, Patricia Leigh Brown reports for The New York Times. (NYT photos by Monica Almeida: No one knows how 8-year-old Kaden Watson, who spent six months in the hospital, contracted the disease, but the guess is that he was digging in the dirt.)

The disease, commonly called as "cocci," has been labeled “a silent epidemic” by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Brown reports. Most people exposed to the fungus don't get ill, but about 160 people die each year, and thousands face years of disability and surgery. About 9 percent contract pneumonia and 1 percent experience serious complications beyond the lungs.
The numbers are probably larger because some states, including huge Texas, don't require public reporting of deaths from it; and a 2010 survey from New Mexico found 69 percent of clinicians did not consider it in patients with respiratory problems. Hopefully, that number is smaller now. Cocci is most prevalent in California and Arizona.

Effects of the disease are alarming. One man dropped from 220 to 145 in two weeks and had lesions on his face and body. Another, who's been told he has 10 years to live, lives in constant pain, and wakes up retching every day. A study by Arizona's Department of Health Services showed African Americans have a a 25 percent risk of developing complications, while Caucasians' risk is only 6 percent. (Barbara Lundy dropped to 71 lbs. at one point; it has affected her ability to think, remember, walk, or live independently)

Last year 13,000 cases were reported in Arizona, with more cases reported when rainfall is followed by dry spells, Brown reports. Many scientists say the increase is related to changing climate patterns, while state epidemiologist Kenneth K. Komatsu told Brown another factor might be urban sprawl: “digging up rural areas where valley fever is growing in the soil,” he said. (Read more)

Food bank in Northeast Tennessee delivers summer lunches to rural, low-income children

Nearly 500 low-income children in Northeast Tennessee won't go hungry this summer. Second Harvest Food Bank's Lunch Express program, which was launched last year through a $50,000 grant from the ConAgra Foods Foundation, provides sack lunches five days a week from June 1 to Aug. 2 to children in Washington, Sullivan, Carter, Unicoi and Greene counties, Sue Guinn Legg reports for the Johnson City Press.

The program received another $20,000 this year, Legg reports. Funds were used to purchase four retired school buses, pay drivers, and cover the cost of fuel "to make daily lunch deliveries to 11 congregate feeding sites and 29 neighborhoods . . . where children do not have close access to other feeding programs."

Rhonda Chafin, executive director of the regional food bank, told Legg, “We’re the only food bank that’s doing this. And we’re one of the first to operate a program like this. . . . We’re serving 475 to 500 children a day. We focus on a lot of trailer courts and rural areas where kids can’t walk into a town where there are places they can eat.”

Eli Saslow of The WashingtonPost wrote it up like this: "It was the first day of summer in a place where summers had become hazardous to a child’s health, so the school bus rolled out of the parking lot on its newest emergency route. It passed by the church steeples of downtown and curved into the blue hills of Appalachia. The highway became two lanes. The two lanes turned to red dirt and gravel. On the dashboard of the bus, the driver had posted an aphorism. “Hunger is hidden,” it read, and this bus had been dispatched to find it." It's a great read, and a lesson in how to write about poverty; for more, click here.

AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers ride along with the drivers, make contact with the children’s families, and provide educational nutrition information. Children receive a different sandwich each day, along with fresh vegetables or fruit, and milk, and once a week get a prepackaged lunch of meat and cheese and crackers, Legg reports.

Crude-oil derailment in southern Quebec kills at least 5; about 40 missing, 30 hours after blast

UPDATE, July 8: The death toll is now 13. The Wall Street Journal reports the disaster "threatens to ratchet up scrutiny of rising crude-by-rail shipments on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, amid a boom in North American oil production" and the debate over Trans-Canada's Keystone XL pipeline for Canadian tar-sand oil. (Sûreté du Québec photo)

At least five people are dead, 2,000 evacuated and 40 buildings destroyed following the derailment of an unmanned crude-oil train in southern Quebec. "About 40 people are reported missing, according to the Sûreté du Québec," the provincial police, The Montreal Gazette reported this morning. "That number could go up or down at any time."

The train had been parked six miles from the town but got loose. "Somehow, the locomotive’s air brakes appear to have failed, allowing the train to roll forward under its own weight, the Gazette's Christopher Curis writes. "The freight train then rapidly gained momentum as it travelled down a slope in the tracks, derailed and exploded near downtown Lac Mégantic. There are fail-safes in place to ensure no one could have tampered with the brakes or the train’s controls, according to a spokesperson for the company that owns the locomotive," the Maine--based Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway.

MapQuest image locates Lac Megantic (Click on map for larger version)

The rail line runs from Montreal through Maine to Saint John, New Brunswick. It carries crude oil from the Bakken field in North Dakota to a refinery at Saint John, reports Tux Turkel of the Maine Sunday Telegram. "Strong opposition by environmental activists has stalled the construction of new pipelines to move the oil to North American refineries, and that has created an opportunity for freight railroads. But the new activity also carries some risk," such as a list of accidents Turkel cites in his story.

UPDATE: The disaster hasn't kept Lac-Mégantic’s local weekly newspaper, L’Echo de Frontenac, from publishing, reports Jacques Gallant of The Toronto Star. The paper's website, which is in French, is here. Outside journalists were given a tour of the blast area Tuesday, July 10; "the experience was overwhelming," Christopher Curtis of The Gazette in Montréal reports.

Is EPA caving to pressure on fracking probes as Obama pushes gas as balm for climate change?

"Environmentalists see an [Environmental Protection] Agency that is systematically disengaging from any research that could be perceived as questioning the safety of fracking or oil drilling, even as President Obama lays out a plan to combat climate change that rests heavily on the use of natural gas," Abrahm Lustgarten reports for Pro Publica.

In 2011, the EPA said fracking polluted an aquifer in Pavillion, Wyo., the first time such a claim had been based on a scientific analysis, Lustgarten reports. But the agency has since backed off on its investigation, handing its study over to the state, to be funded by the drilling company. (Casper Star-Tribune photo by Dustin Bleizeffer: Examining water in Pavillion)

That wasn't the only time the agency backed away from a fracking investigation. "Over the past 15 months the EPA closed an investigation into groundwater pollution in Dimock, Pa., saying the level of contamination was below federal safety triggers and abandoned its claim that a driller in Parker County, Texas, was responsible for methane gas bubbling up in residents’ faucets, even though a geologist hired by the agency confirmed this finding," Lustgarten reports. They also "sharply revised downward a 2010 estimate showing that leaking gas from wells and pipelines was contributing to climate change, crediting better pollution controls by the drilling industry even as other reports indicate the leaks may be larger than previously thought, and failed to enforce a statutory ban on using diesel fuel in fracking."

Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, told Lustgarten, “We’re seeing a pattern that is of great concern. They need to make sure that scientific investigations are thorough enough to ensure that the public is getting a full scientific explanation.”

Publicly, the EPA says the events are not related, Lustgarten reports, "but in private conversations, however, high-ranking agency officials acknowledge that fierce pressure from the drilling industry and its powerful allies on Capitol Hill – as well as financial constraints and a delicate policy balance sought by the White House – is squelching their ability to scrutinize not only the effects of oil and gas drilling, but other environmental protections as well." He notes that last year, the EPA's budget was cut 17 percent, to below 1998 levels, and sequestration has forced further cuts. (Read more)

Man survives five hours trapped in grain bin, a more dangerous device than ever, relatively speaking

When someone falls into a grain bin, the chance of survival is slim. From 1964 to 2008, 74 percent of reported grain entrapments resulted in fatalities, according to a report from Purdue University. But last week, 23-year-old Arick Baker beat the odds, surviving five hours in a bin at New Providence, Iowa. Katherine Klingseis detailed Baker's incredible story in The Des Moines Register. (Register photo by David Purdy: Baker standing on corn cleared from the bin to free him)

Baker, who was trying to remove some rotten corn when he fell, told Klingseis, “My whole life I’ve been told that once you go down in a grain bin, you die. In less than 10 seconds, there was 18 inches to 2 feet of corn above me. I had my left arm above my head, and I think you could only see an inch of my fingers. I just thought about my next breath. It consumed all of my mind activity.”

Baker was one of the lucky ones, and doctors credit that to being just the right age to survive such an ordeal, Klingseis reports. His heart rate was so fast -- 173 times per minute, or 90 percent of his maximum -- that doctors told him "if I were 10 years older, my heart would have exploded from how fast it was beating,” and because of his size, doctors said “If I were 10 years younger, I would have been squeezed to death from the pressure.”

Despite nearly dying, Baker has no plans to stop working on grain bins, or even going back into one if necessary, Klingseis reports. “I’m going to be a farmer the rest of my life. I need to get used to going into grain bins. I will take a little extra safety precautions, but it still has to be done.” (Read more) Grain-bin injuries and fatalities have remained steady as other farm-related casualties have declined, and prosecutions for violations of safety rules are rare.

Ky. will save by no longer housing inmates in private prisons, but closing last one will hurt its host county

Kentucky's plan to save money by no longer housing its inmates in private prisons could significantly hurt the rural county with the last one. The state announced its intention to end its contract with Corrections Corp. of America for the Marion Adjustment Center in St. Mary, saying it could have $1.5 to $2.5 million a year, Stephen Lega reports for the Lebanon Enterprise, but the impact on Marion County could be as great. (Lega photo: Marion Adjustment Center)

Once the prisoners are moved, Kentucky will no longer house any of its inmates in private prisons; one prison houses inmates from Vermont. With the relocation of 1,807 inmates, 166 employees will lose their jobs and the county stands to lose a considerable amount, Lega reports. From August 2012 to May 2013 the center spent nearly $1.77 million with Marion County businesses, including $32,497 for advertising with the Enterprise, a Landmark Community Newspapers Inc. weekly.

The facility also provided more than $132,000 in revenue for the county water district in the past year, invested $250,000 to help start a sewer project, and pays between $18,000 to $21,500 per month for sewer service. Also, the county gets about $52,700 a year in occupational taxes from the facility. Families of inmates also bring money to the county when they visit, and "the prison's community service workers provided more than $34,000 in savings to the Department of Transportation and the community during the first six months of 2013," Lega reports.
 
In addition to monetary gains, inmate programs have provided helpful services, reports Lega. Prisoners run an obedience training program for shelter dogs that are considered difficult to adopt, with more than 300 dogs having been adopted through the program. Inmates have also been responsible for cleaning up the community, building new bridges, benches and picnic tables, and have done other work to help better the county. (Read more) 

State parks suffer from budget cuts; situation worsens as facilities deteriorate

Budget cuts across the country are having a big impact on the nation's 7,975 state parks. In 1990, general tax dollars covered, on average, about 60 percent of a state park’s budget, but by 2011, the number had dropped to 34 percent, Brad Cooper reports for the Kansas City Star. The cutbacks are hampering basic repairs and maintenance. (Star photo by Keith Myers: Clinton State Park in Lawrence, Kan.)

State parks are facing mushrooming backlogs of repairs, ranging from $1 billion in California to $750 million in Illinois to $400 million in Missouri, Cooper reports. Without proper funding, the condition of state parks has suffered. The American Society of Civil Engineers this year gave the U.S. a C-minus for the condition of its park infrastructure, saying "states and local governments can’t keep up with recreational needs because of shrinking budgets."

The group says the amount of money states need just isn't available, with federal data showing states are asking for $18.5 billion for outdoor recreational facilities, Cooper writes. As a result, states are trying to make up the money by increasing fees. Illinois, which has a park-repair backlog of $750 million, has raised license-plate renewals by $2. Kansas, which has a backlog of $26 million and a state park budget of $10.6 million for this fiscal year, is offering discounts on annual state-park passes when drivers register their cars.

"South Carolina lists $155 million in deferred park maintenance," Cooper writes. "Texas estimates its backlog at somewhere between $400 million and $700 million, needing roughly $64 million every two-year budget cycle to maintain its system of more than 90 parks. This year, the state received $11 million from the Texas Legislature for capital improvements. New York officials last year identified more than $1 billion in needed park work, including some sites where conditions were so bad that areas had to be roped off to protect the public. In some cases, amenities were closed off completely to ensure safety." (Read more)

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/06/30/4322935/state-parks-fall-victim-to-tight.html#storylink=cpy

Program helps bring broadband to rural Minnesota

More rural residents of Minnesota are getting the chance to experience the benefits of broadband Internet. The $6.6 million Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities program was designed to boost rural broadband by helping people find online resources to better their lives. The recently completed program has already helped 250,000 rural Minnesotans get introduced to online resources for jobs, continuing their education, and strengthening their businesses, reports the Grand Rapids Herald Review, north of Minneapolis. 

The program "leveraged resources of coalition partners to extend small business technical assistance and training, distribute refurbished computers to low-income families, train individuals and businesses, and create and deliver courses for knowledge workers," reports the Review. As part of the program 11 communities received $100,000 "to identify and implement nearly 100 projects that fit local broadband needs and helped communities boost their overall ability to participate in the Internet-based economy." In the 11 communities the subscription growth rate for broadband services increased from 10.3 to 15.9 percent.

"The project was funded through a $4.8 million Broadband Technology Opportunity Program grant through the U.S. Department of Commerce as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and $1.8 million in MIRC partner matches. Blandin Foundation administered the grant on behalf of the initiative partners," the Review reports. (Read more)

Twice-weekly in Republican county in No. Virginia drops 'Democrat' name, citing need for circulation

If you're in a struggling industry at a time when the country has become politically polarized, being identified with a political party is not good business. That's what the twice-weekly Fauquier Times in Northern Virginia horse country said when it abandoned the name "Fauquier Times-Democrat" June 19.

"In an age which is, perhaps, more shaped and informed by political identity than any other in our history, having a word in our banner that is so associated with a political party is no longer a very astute business decision," Executive Editor Bill Walsh explained to readers in an editorial. The 14,000-circulation paper is part of Times Community News, a family-owned chain.

The Warrenton newspaper, founded in 1817, adopted the partisan name 40 years after the end of the Civil War, when rural Virginia was firmly Democratic. But now Fauquier County is reliably Republican, and Walsh said the paper's circulation department concluded the "Democrat" was a drag, even though the paper is editorially independent and its last presidential endorsement went to Republican Sen. John McCain in 2008.

The change prompted an editorial in The Boston Globe, which said of the paper, "Hopefully its action isn’t a harbinger of things to come. For decades, readers of all political stripes have been mature enough to take newspapers with historical partisan names in stride. If that’s no longer possible, it would be a sad commentary on our hyper-polarized era." (Read more)

Independence Day, by the numbers

Is Johnny Depp part Cherokee? Or is it Creek? Maybe Chickasaw? He and Disney keep it ambiguous

Part of Johnny Depp's appeal in his role as Tonto in "The Lone Ranger," which premieres today nationwide, is his claim to some Native American heritage. But his ambiguty about just which tribes are in his pedigree, and the Walt Disney Co.'s lack of clarification, are drawing fire from the Native community, reports Indian Country Today. (Disney photo)

"Depp’s claims of Cherokee heritage (put forth in 2002 on "Inside the Actors' Studio", although in 2011 speaking to Entertainment Weekly he added 'or maybe Creek'), along with his streaked black-and-white painted face and a stuffed crow perched atop his head, have caused many to cry foul," Angela Aleiss reports. On a more recent program, Depp added Chickasaw to the list of possibilities. All are plausible; he is from Owensboro, Ky., on the lower Ohio River. In the film, he plays a Comanche.

"Native American leaders and educators are not buying it," Aleiss writes, quoting Hanay Geiogamah, a professor at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, who was was a consultant for Disney’s "Pocahontas" and a producer for TBS’ "The Native Americans: Behind the Legends, Beyond the Myths." Geiogamah, a Kiowa and Delaware, told her, "Disney relies upon the ignorance of the public to allow that ambiguity to exist. If Depp had any legitimate blood of any tribe, Disney would definitely have all the substantial proof of that already.  It’s not that hard to establish tribal connections."

Cherokee Nation policy analyst Richard Allen told Aleiss that many celebrities claim Cherokee heritage, often based on family stories, but don't try to verify it.  “They all tell me they have high cheekbones,” Allen said. Other Native Americans said Disney missed an opportunity to cast a true Indian in the role, and has no officer repsonsible for policy toward Native Americans. The company told Aleiss that its senior vice president for multicultural initiatives provided liaison with Native Americans for the movie. (Read more)

Mary Annette Pember writes in the Daily Yonder that Depp, speaking to the Gathering of Nations Powwow in Albuquerque last April, "seems to have tapped into his inner Tonto at a level I would not have dreamed possible. Watching him is more embarrassing than witnessing one of those Unitarian Universalist services in which non-Indians try to sing and play hand drums." Pember also wrote, "I think the real reason that Disney chose Depp is that they couldn’t find any real Indians who could do the Tonto voice while keeping a straight face." (Read more)

Ohio and New Hampshire are latest states to raise speed limit on some interstates; Illinois still in limbo

Speed limits were raised from 65 mph to 70 on several stretches of interstates in Ohio on Monday, and the next day New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan signed the state's first speed limit increase in 40 years, raising a stretch of highway from 65 to 70. Maine and Utah have also raised limits this year, and other states may do so, Governing magazine reports.

The Department of Transportation in Ohio put up 317 new signs Monday along 570 miles of highway alerting drivers to the change, Rick Armon reports for the Akron Beacon Journal. The limit on the Ohio Turnpike (green line on map) had been 70 since April 2011. (News-Herald photo, by Duncan Scott, and map)

Russ Rader, a senior vice president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and its Highway Loss Data Institute in Arlington, Va., told Armon, “It’s popular to raise speed limits. It gets people to their destinations faster but it doesn’t come without a cost. There will be more crashes and more deaths as a result of raising speed limits. Instead of raising speed limits, what states should be doing is vigorously enforcing the speed limits they have because speed is a major safety problem on the roads. If we could control speeding, we could have a significant impact on the death toll." (Read more)

Hassan said she decided to sign the New Hampshire bill because it received overwhelming bipartisan support in the legislature and was limited to certain roads, Kevin Landrigan reports for The Telegraph, located in Nashua, in the southern part of the state.

"As of Jan. 1, the speed limit will be 70 mph for about an 80-mile stretch of I-93 north of Canterbury up to the border with Vermont," Landrigan reports. "Currently, motorists can drive up to 65 mph on this stretch of road. The only part of the route not covered by the increase is about 5 miles that go through the White Mountain National Forest and Franconia Notch, where the speed limit will remain 45."

The Illinois Legislature passed a bill in May that would raise the state's interstate speed limit to 70, from 65, but Gov. Pat Quinn still hasn't decided whether to sign or veto it. He can delay action until Aug. 19, which is 60 days from the date he received the bill. For the roundup from Governing, click here. (Thanks to Ray Long of the Chicago Tribune for information.)

If current trends continue, by 2050 there won't be enough food to feed the world, study says

If the world's population continues to grow at its projected rate, and crop yields remain as expected, by 2050 there won't be enough food to feed the world, Population is expected to grow from 7 billion today to 9.6 billion in 2050, but a University of Minnesota study "found that crop yields haven’t been rising at a sufficient pace to meet projected demand by 2050," Brad Plumer reports for The Washington Post. The study was published in PLOS One, the journal of the Public Library of Science, which describes itself as "organization of scientists committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature freely accessible to scientists and to the public."

(Chart by PLOS One: "The study takes a careful look at historical improvements in crop yields for corn, rice, wheat and soybeans...yields per acre have been growing fairly constantly in all four areas," Plumer writes. "The solid lines show what would happen if this growth continued. The dashed lines above show how productivity would need to grow even more rapidly ... to satisfy expected demand and double global food production by 2050 in a sustainable manner, without razing more forests.")

Jonathan Foley, an agricultural expert and one of the authors, told Plumer, “In many parts of the world, we haven’t seen enough investment in agriculture because of economics or policies or institutions." But another problem could be that farmers are reaching a limit on how much yields can keep rising. Foley said, “We can sometimes bust through these walls with technology, genetics, better seeds. But at a certain point we run up against fundamental physiological limits for plants. If billion of years of evolution can’t figure it out, are we going to be able to? That I don’t know.”

If crops yields don't improve quickly enough, food prices could increase, or new farmland will be needed, which means clearing away more forests, and possibly accelerating climate change, Plumer writes. In a 2009 essay for Scientific American, Foley argued that the world should focus on five things: Stop razing forests and savannas for farmland — by, for instance, shifting away from crop-based biofuels; focus on boosting yields where it’s technologically doable, especially in Africa; figure out how to use water and fertilizer more efficiently everywhere; reduce the amount of meat in our diets; and cut down on the enormous amount of food waste worldwide. (Read more)

Big immigration raid in 2008 pushed the issue and made Iowa reporters do much more with it

Fermin Loyes was deported in the raid, but has reunited with
family in Postville. (Photo: Kaitlyn Bernauer, The Gazette)

A federal raid of a meatpacking plant in the small town of Postville, Iowa, in 2008 may have been the catalyst for putting the need for immigration reform back in the national spotlight, and for creating a new breed of journalists who became experts at covering the immigration debate, especially from the human-interest point of view, Deron Lee reports for Columbia Journalism Review.

The raid led to the arrest of 400 workers, who were the victims of deplorable working conditions, and ended up getting caught in the justice system, where they were separated from their families, imprisoned, and deported. The raid decimated the town’s immigrant-heavy population, and its economy, Lee reports.

The raid also changed the way journalists covered immigration, reports Lee. "In a state with a small (though exponentially growing) immigrant population, reporters may not have felt the need to engage with immigration on a local level had Postville not lifted the veil on the shadow world of migrant laborers in the heartland." Jens Manuel Krogstad, who reported on the raid for the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, and still covers Postville for The Des Moines Register, said “I think that was a springboard to a lot of immigration coverage.”

Apdullahi Hassan, in his Postville convenience
store, is one of many Somalis who have moved
to the area since the raid. (Bernauer photo)

Trish Mehaffey, who covered the fifth anniversary of the raid last month for The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, told Lee: “I think the Postville raid brought to light the fact that there needed to be changes, because it kind of ruined that town. It really opens your eyes to see how something like that can affect a whole community."

Journalists covering the scene also did something unusual, by interviewing the immigrants, Lee . What the reporters came away with was stories that turned stats and figures into real people with real stories. "The inherent difficulty in reporting on unauthorized immigrants is that most don’t want to be seen," Lee wrotes. "But when opportunities have arisen to talk to undocumented workers . . . Iowa reporters have taken the initiative." (Read more)

Libertarian-oriented foundation says North Dakota still has best state highways in the U.S.

North Dakota continues to have the best state-owned highway system in the country, according to the libertarian-oriented Reason Foundation's 20th "Annual Report of the Performance of State Highway Systems." Highways were rated based on expenditures, interstate and primary road pavement condition, bridge condition, urban interstate congestion, fatality rates and narrow rural lanes. The study was based on spending and performance data submitted by state highway agencies to the federal government, according to a Reason news release.

North Dakota, which has held the top spot every year since 2001, was followed by Kansas, Wyoming, New Mexico, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Missouri, South Dakota, and Mississippi. Alaska was 50th and Rhode Island was 49th. Those two states (the largest and smallest in area) reported more than 10 percent of their rural primary mileage to be in poor condition. The percentage of road miles in a state that are the responsibility of the state varies widely. To view the full report click here.

Volunteers bringing veterinarian care to pets, owners in remote areas of Alaska

Pet owners in remote areas of Alaska have long struggled to get routine medical care for their pets, and the lack of spay-and-neuter procedures has led to an overabundance of animals, many of whom are sick, the Anchorage Daily News reports. Alaska Rural Veterinary Outreach, a non-profit organization, is trying to improve the quality of life for pets by bringing veterinary services to areas in need (Photo by College Village Animal Clinic: Veterinarians providing service in Nondalton)

Nondalton, located on the western shore of the Cook Inlet, has a population of 167, but no resources for pets. The outreach program, manned by volunteers, recently visited the village, providing care for 28 dogs in desperate need of basic services, such as vaccines, the News reports. Nondalton’s community health aide, Ron Lotsfeld said, “Our community has needed this service for a very long time. Their efforts will result in a healthier canine community here, and a more manageable dog population. We hope they can do the same thing for many other villages.”

Outreach founder and President Sally Clampitt said "Reaching out to Alaska’s rural pets and their people is long overdue. We are just getting started, but have received requests for help from all across Alaska.” The group said their biggest challenge is finding "enough veterinarians and trained volunteers willing to donate their time, and sponsors who are willing to pick up the cost of the needed medications and supplies." (Read more)

GOP sees Obama's climate initiative as an opportunity to beat coal-state Democrats

Republicans say President Obama's plan to fight climate change could benefit them in midterm elections in coal country, opening the door for their party to grab seats held by Democrats, and to ensure that an incumbent like Mitch McConnell of Kentucky stays in office, Trip Gabriel reports for The New York Times. (NYT photo by Shawn Poynter: Kentucky Power's Big Sandy Plant)

Alison Lundergan Grimes

Senate elections in 2014 include open seats in West Virginia and South Dakota now held by Democrats, and elections in energy-rich Louisiana, where Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu is on shaky ground, and Kentucky, where Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes said yesterday she is taking on McConnell, the Senate GOP leader and a top target of Democrats. He would like to become majority leader; to do that, his party would need a net gain of six seats.

Nick Rahall

Following Obama's climate-change speech last week, Republicans immediately went on the attack against Democratic House members in mining states, and Democratic candidates like Nick J. Rahall II of West Virginia are trying to distance themselves from the president, Fears reports. But Republicans are trying to link Democratic candidates to Obama and his speech, to get the upper hand. After Grimes announced she was immediately attacked by national Republicans as being joined at the hip to the president in a “desire to destroy the coal industry."

Obama's speech isn't helping Democrats in coal states. Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky (and publisher of The Rural Blog) told Gabriel that Obama “has no more elections to win, and he can play his real cards. He was already the most anti-coal president we’ve ever had, and now he’s doubled down. That is not good for Kentucky Democrats in any shape, form or fashion.”

Rahall sounded nearly as hostile as the billboards dotting coal country bought by mining interests that declare “Obama’s No Jobs Zone,” saying he was “profoundly disappointed” by the president’s new initiative, Fears reports. Rahall said “I’m not ever, ever, ever going to back away from fighting for our coal miners."

Shelley Moore Capito

"Republicans countered that on this issue Democrats can run but they cannot hide," Gabriel writes. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) who is seeking the Senate seat that opened with the retirement of John D. Rockefeller IV, a Democrat, said the president’s climate initiative “is a problem for every Democrat. You are, for better or worse, a part of the party that you put your name on the ballot with.” (Read more)

Fracking waste from Pa., W.Va. going underground in Ohio at increasing rates

Hydraulic fracturing fluids and oil-and-gas waste from Pennsylvania and West Virginia are being injected into Ohio disposal wells at an increasing rate, with a reported 8.16 million barrels of waste from other states found in Ohio in 2012, a 19 percent increase from 2011, Spencer Hunt reports for The Columbus Dispatch. Overall, 14.2 million barrels were injected into Ohio disposal wells in 2012, up 12 percent from 2011. (Dispatch graphic; click on it to enlarge)

Fourteen new disposal wells have been drilled in Ohio since last year, giving the state 191, compared to 63 in West Virginia and seven in Pennsylvania, Hunt reports. "There also is little that state officials can do to keep out-of-state waste from Ohio wells. Federal commerce protections forbid one state from imposing tariffs or bans on legally shipped commodities from other states."

Teresa Mills, fracking coordinator for the Buckeye Forest Council, told Hunt, “I think we’ve been the sacrifice zone for the oil and gas industry long enough. How much can we take before there are more earthquakes and before (drinking water) wells are contaminated?” State officials said the wells are safe. They also say there was a 5 percent decrease in waste injections during the first three months of 2013, compared to the same period last year. (Read more)

Decline of butterflies could be a warning that the environment is struggling

Several subspecies of butterflies are declining in numbers, and some have disappeared completely, which has environmentalists worried, Darryl Fears reports for The Washington Post. Robert K. Robbins, a research entomologist at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History, said that if butterfly species are going extinct, "It’s a strong indicator that we’re messing up the environment around us," and when an entire line dies off, "It’s a report card on the health of the environment around us." (University of Florida photo by Dr. Thomas C. Emmel: The endangered male Schaus swallowtail)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced that two species -- the rockland grass skipper and the Zestos skipper -- are probably extinct in South Florida, Fears reports. At least one species has vanished from the U.S., another 17 species and subspecies are listed as endangered nationwide, and two are listed as threatened.

"The same issues plaguing butterflies are also causing populations of frogs, salamanders and toads to plummet, along with bees and other insects," Fears reports. "A recent U.S. Geological Survey study estimated that seven species of amphibians will drop by 50 percent if the current rate of decline, fueled by pesticide use and loss of habitat, continues. Eighty percent of food crops are pollinated by insects such as bees, moths and butterflies." (Read more)

Atheist marker, stemming from settlement of Ten Commandments lawsuit, is called the first in U.S.

Atheists now have a monument, and place to rest, in Florida. And they say they intend to do likewise in every state.

American Atheists, a New Jersey-based organization that says it fights to separate government and religion, unveiled a monument Saturday of a bench next to a monument of the Ten Commandments at the courthouse in Starke, Fla. population 5,500, in the north-central part of the state between Gainesville and Jacksonville. It's believed to be the first public marker dedicated to atheism in the U.S., Morgan Watkins reports for The Gainesville Sun. (Sun photo by Matt Stamey: David Silverman, president of American Atheists, at the unveiling)

American Atheists "sued Bradford County in May 2012, soon after the Ten Commandments monument was erected in front of the courthouse, seeking the monument's removal," Watkins reports. "The Community Men's Fellowship, a Starke-based group that sponsored the religious monument when it was erected, refused the county's request that it remove the display and filed its own lawsuit. During court-ordered mediation, the groups settled on an agreement: The Ten Commandments monument could stay, but American Atheists would establish their own monument in kind."

The group announced that it "will erect up to 50 more monuments across the country in public places where religious structures like the Ten Commandments marker in Starke have been established," Watkins reports. "An anonymous donor has pledged up to $500,000 for this effort." (Read more)

Wildfire kills 19 of 20 firefighters in nation's only city-based 'hotshot' unit that fights such fires

"Prescott is mourning."

That's how Patrick Whitehurst of The Daily Courier in Prescott, Ariz., began his story about the horrific casualties from a wildfire that killed 19 of the 20 firefighters in a special unit of the city fire department yesterday. (Prescott Fire Dept. photo)

The Granite Mountain Hotshots are the only widlfire-fighting team in the U.S. "organized through a city fire department," Whitehurst reports. "It earned its national inter-agency hotshot designation in 2008. Prescott Fire Department Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said the 20th crew member was working in a different location on the fire and was not injured."

Prescott (Google Maps)

Frajo said, "We're devastated. We just lost 19 of the finest people you'll ever meet. ... Truly, we're going through a terrible crisis right now." Prescott's population is about 40,000.

"Sunday's fatalities amounted to the highest firefighter death toll on a single U.S. wildfire since 1933, when 25 firefighters were killed on the Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles," Whitehurst reports. At the bottom of his story are links to other coverage by the Daily Courier, and many reader comments.

Natural-gas producers charging fees that cut into Pennsylvania landowners' royalty payments

In a good example of local reporting on the relationship between gas companies and rural landowners, The Herald of Sharon, Pa. has a story about how gas company fees in the Marcellus Shale region are cutting into royalty payments for landowners who allow drilling on their property, and landowners are being seriously shortchanged while gas companies make huge profits, reports John Finnerty, state-capital correspondent for Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.

Republican Sen. Gene Yaw, chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy committee, said “In some cases, these costs have caused royalty payments to be as low as 1.47 percent, well below the 12.5 percent guaranteed minimum,” Finnerty reports. Yaw told him problems with confusing or ambiguous royalty stubs and excessive post-production cost deductions have significantly impacted many leaseholders.

The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau looked into allegations, finding that one well produced $41,861 worth of gas, but Chesapeake Appalachia deducted $28,249 before making a royalty payment of $13,611, Finnerty reports. "In another case, the gas company post-production deductions consumed 88 percent of the royalty payment. The well had produced $14,481 worth of gas. The company deducted $12,790, leaving the landowner with a royalty payment of $1,690."

The Pennsylvania chapter of the National Royalty Owners Association "is lobbying for changes in regulations to arm property owners with leverage to ensure they are being treated fairly," Finnerty reports. David Sikes, president of the national association, told a Senate committee, “The problem is that most royalty owners cannot afford to file a lawsuit on an oil company that has lawyers on their staff." (Read more)

Firefighters at West, Tex., fertilizer explosion were not trained to fight it; no states mandate it

Firefighters at the West, Tex., fertilizer explosion were not prepared for the hazards they were facing, according to testimony at a congressional hearing by Rafael Moure-Eraso, chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, Russ Quinn reports for DTN The Progressive Farmer. "Records have shown that West Fertilizer did apprise local emergency officials that dangerous chemicals and fertilizers were stored at the site, but no training or preparation of firefighters took place." (Photo by Longleaf Alliance, School of Forestry and Wildlife Services, Auburn University)

Kimberly Quiros, director of communications for the National Volunteer Fire Council, said there is no nationwide, mandatory training for volunteer firefighters to fight fertilizer-based fires, Quinn reports. She said some states may offer optional training, but she was not aware of any state mandated fertilizer fire training. Quiros said, "It is up to the states for specialized training like fighting fertilizer fires. And not only does training vary from state to state, but also community to community within a state depending on what is in their areas." 

Galen Barrett, a fire service training coordinator for Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, said Iowa is one of many Midwest states that do not require volunteer firefighters to take any specialized training to fight fertilizer fires. Bob Spratt, manager of Le Roy Fertilizer in Le Roy, Ill., said Illinois rural firefighters are trained for awareness of fertilizer fires, but advanced training is optional. (Read more)

Coal played political ju-jitsu with Obama, becoming more victim than villain in Central Appalachia

As the Obama administration started working on climate change and targeted certain strip-mining practices, the Central Appalachian coal industry has battled back with a pro-coal campaign that has turned into a war with environmental interests. The battle continues to heat up as more coal jobs are lost, and environmentalists push for alternatives to coal, John Cheves and Bill Estep report for the Lexington Herald-Leader. (H-L photo by Charles Bertram: A sign in the Knott County Courthouse in Eastern Kentucky)

The group Coal Mining Our Future was created "to ensure that citizens are informed about coal industry activities," according to its mission statement "The group sponsors pro-coal rallies, encourages letters and phone calls to politicians, conducts surface mine tours to show the usefulness of flat land, makes charitable donations and distributes pro-coal T-shirts and bumper stickers, such as the now-ubiquitous decal declaring 'If you don't like coal, don't use electricity'," Cheves and Estep report in the latest installment of a year-long series on Appalachian Kentucky that began in December.

It's all part of an "us versus them" mentality, uniting miners behind their bosses, something new in the coalfield, Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky, told Cheves. Coal operators "are in a defensive mode, and they're gathering their friends around them. This has created, I think, kind of a siege mentality and a regional solidarity. There used to just be sympathy for miners. Now there is sympathy for an industry," Cross said in March speech entitled "From Villain to Victim: The Coal Industry's New Image in Appalachian Kentucky." In his column yesterday in The Courier-Journal, drawing from President Obama's plan to thwart climate change, Cross said "The industry has played political ju-jitsu with Obama’s policies, turning its public image from one of environmental and workplace villain into one of political victim. . . . Now there really is a war on coal."

Cross and the reporters cited polls in 2007 and 2011 by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Six years ago, 37 percent of people in Harlan and Letcher counties said natural resources should be used to create jobs today rather than be conserved for future generations, but by 2011, that number had jumped to 52 percent. Cross noted that the Great Recession surely had some effect on public opinion, too. (Map locates Harlan and Letcher counties in officially designated Appalachia)

The Lexington-based Kentucky Coal Association spent nearly $2 million over the past three years to promote the industry, and it backs Kentucky's Friends of Coal, which last year collected $174,790, by selling pro-coal merchandise and sponsoring popular events and a widely seen, official license plate. Kentucky politicians from both parties have appeared at its rallies to criticize President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency. (Read more)

Online paper wins $111,000 in attorney fees, court costs over sheriff's stinginess with public records

The Lake County News of Northern California won a lawsuit against the county, after a judge determined that Sheriff Frank Rivero (Sacramento Bee photo by Randall Benton) discriminated against the online-only newspaper by refusing to provide public information, reporter Patrick Boylan writes. The county will have to pay $110,990 in attorney fees and court costs.

The News's attorney said Rivero didn't like what it was printing about him and decided to cut it off, requiring it to use the California Public Records Act to obtain documents that had already been released to other news media, Boylan writes. The News also had to go to the sheriff's office and pay for copies that were free to other local news outlets. The daily newspaper in the county is the Lake County Record-Bee, owned by MediaNews Group.

Some of the stories at issue were allegations that Rivero lied about a 2008 shooting, and his creation of a "Brady List" for officers with credibility issues, reports Boylan. Elizabeth Larson, co-owner of the paper with her husband, John Jensen, said, “Our coverage has been truthful and accurate; he just doesn't like it. We tried everything to avoid going to court. The sheriff persisted in his retaliation against us for coverage that he didn't like, leaving us no alternative but to sue him.” (Read more)

In an email to the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Rivero said, “To the extent that the judge used his discretion to award attorney’s fees to a non-prevailing party, I believe that exceeded his authority." Rivero said he plans to appeal. Meanwhile, citizens in Lake County have begun a recall campaign against him, needing 7,026 signatures by Aug. 15. (Read more) The group circulating petitions reported June 20 "it had more than 90 percent of the signatures needed to get a recall election on the ballot," Jeremy Walsh of the Record-Bee reports.

USDA OKs inspections for horsemeat plant in N.M., may do likewise in Iowa and Mo.; fight looms

The Department of Agriculture has agreed to inspect a New Mexico slaughterhouse that plans to process horse meat for human consumption, a move likely to set off another round of battles over whether horse abattoirs can operate legally in the U.S.

Valley Meat Co. of Roswell, N.M., waited more than a year to get the go-ahead from USDA, which gave it only grudgingly, saying the law required it to issue a "grant of inspection" because it had met all the requirements, Charles Abbott of Reuters reports, adding: "The USDA also said it may soon issue similar grants for plants in Missouri and Iowa." UPDATE: Agri-Pulse reports, "The other companies expected to receive USDA inspection permits are Rains Natural Meats in Missouri and Responsible Transportation in Iowa."

UPDATE, July 3: Responsible Transportation, in Sigourney, said it has received a grant of inspection, and the Rains plant, in Gallatin, Mo., "reportedly could receive a permit this week," Julie Harker reports for Brownfield.

USDA's move could prompt a blocking move in Congress, where members of both parties join with President Obama in opposing horse slaughter. Congress effectively banned it from 2007 to 2011 by denying money for inspections, but lifted the ban after a study showed that it had removed the bottom from the horse market and worsened the problem of horse abandonment and neglect.

An estimated 130,000 U.S. horses are shipped annually to slaughter in Canada and Mexico," Abbott reports. Horse meat is sold for human consumption in several other countries, "and is sometimes used as feed for zoo animals. But in the United States, horses enjoy a higher stature, more akin to house pets, than to hogs, cattle and chickens."

Abbott notes, "The Humane Society of the United States and Front Range Equine Rescue threatened on Friday to sue the USDA, saying horses are raised as pets and as working animals. Because they are not intended as food animals, horses are given medications banned from other livestock, the groups said, questioning if the meat would be safe. The USDA says it can test for residues of 130 pesticides and veterinary drugs." (Read more) On Friday, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service updated its instructions for inspection of slaughtered horses; a PDF is here.

House GOP may split Farm Bill, separating nutrition and food stamps from agriculture programs

Eric Cantor

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who played a significant role in the defeat of that chamber's farm bill, is leading a drive to split the bill into two parts, "so that the nutrition title and food stamps funding can each be considered on its own," David Rogers reports for Politico. The move follows the agenda of outside conservative groups, but "Speaker John Boehner’s office signaled Thursday that he also is open to the two-bill strategy and a final decision will be made after the July 4 recess."

"For Boehner and larger American agriculture interests, the two-bill approach represents a major challenge: Do they allow themselves to be whittled down more from the right or embrace a larger reform agenda that rebuilds the old urban-rural coalition more from the middle?" Rogers writes. Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) told him, “It’s simple: Farm policy and food stamp policy are different. The House should consider them separately. We have an opportunity to make common-sense reforms by splitting the bill into a real, farm-only farm bill and having an honest conversation about how Washington spends taxpayer money.”

The Senate, which passed its farm bill earlier this month, "treated food stamps and commodity programs together as a whole — much as they have been for decades," Rogers reports. "The food-stamps fight has dominated farm bill politics to date. But last week’s floor debate also reflected a bipartisan appetite for more reforms in crop insurance and international food aid — a path that could attract votes from both sides of the aisle. It is possible that the food-stamp issue has become so toxic that Democrats will be reluctant to come on board. But they, like agriculture, have a stake in keeping alive the partnership that has worked so long." (Read more)