Decline in statehouse reporters continues, but at slower rate, Pew Research Center finds

About 70 percent of daily newspapers and 86 percent of television stations don't assign a reporter of any kind to cover their statehouse, according to a study of 801 dailies by the Pew Research Center. Since 2003 the number of full-time reporters assigned to statehouses has dropped by 164, a decrease of 35 percent. Of the 918 local television stations studied, only 130 assign a reporter to the statehouse.

Among statehouse reporters, 139, or 9 percent, work for wire services, the report found. Of those 139 reporters, 91 are full-time and 69 of those work for The Associated Press. "Although the wire service reduced statehouse staffing during the recession, the AP is now increasing the size of some of its Capitol bureaus," the Pew report says.

Newspapers still have the highest percentage of statehouse reporters, but 16 percent now work for non-traditional outlets, such as digital-only sites, the study found.

Fewer than half of the 1,592 journalists who cover statehouses do so full-time, the report found. Texas has the most full-time reporters, at 53; South Dakota has the fewest, two. The study defines full-time reporters as "those physically assigned to the Capitol building to cover the news there, from legislative activity to the governor’s office to individual state agencies." To read the full study click here.

UPDATE, July 24: Pew has developed an interactive map to show the number of statehouse reporters for every 500,000 people in each state. Here's a screen grab with an example:

EPA head visits Missouri to explain proposed changes in water regulations; farmers are riled up

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy is in Missouri today attempting to explain to agriculture and other industries a much-maligned EPA proposal to simplify federal water laws, Chris Adams reports for McClatchy Newspapers. The problem is that some see the proposed rules as expanding EPA's jurisdiction, a claim the agency denies. But the 88-page document "clarifies that the Clean Water Act protects 'most seasonal and rain-dependent streams' as well as 'wetlands near rivers and streams' and other types of waterways."

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/07/09/232809/epa-sets-out-to-explain-water.html#storylink=cpy

Earlier this week McCarthy "held a conference call with reporters to address what she called 'a growing list of misunderstandings that have been floating around' about the rule," Adams writes. McCarthy told reporters, “Hopefully, it’s an opportunity for me to set the record straight, to explain that while this is not about restricting farmers, it’s about protecting downstream water quality for all of us and doing it in a way that doesn’t get in the way of American agriculture . . . while there are legitimate concerns, we’re hearing some concerns that really are—to put frankly—they’re ludicrous.”

Despite McCarthy's claims, the American Farm Bureau Federation has said EPA needs to "ditch the rule,” Adams writes. "Other farm groups and associations involved with land use have pushed back as well, saying that the proposed rule is too broad and will give the EPA far more control over agricultural and other lands than it now has." Farm Bureau believes that "under the proposed rule, nearly every drop of water that falls would be regulated by the federal government."

Farm Bureau said the rule would "include smaller waters and even some dry land [and] as a result, permit requirements that apply to navigable waters would also apply to ditches, small ponds and even depressions in fields and pastures that are only wet when there is heavy rain." Don Parrish, Farm Bureau's senior director of regulatory affairs, says McCarthy's "public statements don’t match up with what the rule itself says," Adams writes. Parrish told Adams, “EPA may say ‘We don’t intend for that to happen,’ but I can’t take that to court. The words differ in black and white from what she is saying. The words she says to the press will not be what stands up in court.” (Read more)

Commercial plant making cellulosic ethanol; two more plants expected to open in Iowa this year

Production of commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol, which is considered more environmentally friendly than conventional ethanol, is up and running in northwest Iowa, Donnelle Eller reports for The Des Moines Register. Galva-based Quad County Corn Processors last week produced a limited amount but was expected to be at full speed this week and "plans to quickly scale-up so that it's producing about 2 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year." (Register photo by Charlie Litchfield: Bales of cellulosic field refuse outside a plant last winter)

Agri-Pulse, a Washington newsletter, reports that in 2007 a bipartisan Congress "overwhelmingly adopted an updated Renewable Fuel Standard that calls for 16 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol to make up the largest of a 36-billion-gallon biofuel target by 2022. Underscoring that optimism was the decision by Congress to cap corn ethanol's annual contribution at 15 billion gallons in 2015 and beyond." (Agri-Pulse is subscription only, but a free trial is available by clicking here.)

"The dramatic reduction of carbon emissions offered by fuel from corn stalks or agriculture residues when compared to gasoline and the availability as an almost limitless source of feedstock led Congress to establish an upward progression of cellulosic ethanol targets under RFS," Agri-Pulse writes. But the Environmental Protection Agency kept revising its cellulosic ethanol targets, lowering numbers from an original target of 1.75 billion in 2014 to only 17 million gallons. Blenders have still called the target number excessive, and EPA data shows that as of early June, less than 30,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol has been produced this year.

But production could increase at a rapid rate, with two more facilities expected to be up and running in Iowa by the end of the year, Eller writes. DuPont Danisco is building a $225 million cellulosic ethanol plant near the town of Nevada, Iowa, that "plans to make 30 million gallons of ethanol annually from corncobs, husks and stalks, known as stover." Poet-DSM is building a $250 million cellulosic plant in the northwest Iowa town of Emmetsburg and plans to produce 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually. (Read more)

Rural Kansas hospital says it has good strategy for recruiting doctors; Michigan ups incentives

While many rural areas have struggled with doctor shortages, medical professionals in Lakin, Kan., say they have uncovered the key to recruitment success, Mike Shields reports for the Kansas Health Institute. "In Kearny County, on the High Plains near the Kansas-Colorado boundary where there are only about five residents per square mile, one small hospital has adopted a distinctive approach to recruitment that in a relatively short time has produced a staff that includes five doctors, five physician assistants and a growing volume of patients."

The key, Kearny County Hospital CEO Benjamin Anderson told Shields, is to direct searches at four specific types of doctors: someone born and raised in the area looking to return home; foreign doctors who gained U.S. resident status by agreeing to work (usually temporarily) in an under-served area; a "challenged doctor" with addictions or other problems who struggles with accountability issues; and a missionary-type person, someone "driven by by mission or purpose” to treat those in need.

Anderson told Shields that doctors they recruit “aren’t that interested in country clubs, not that interested in ego and money and prestige and elite social clubs. What they are there for is to serve. That doesn’t mean our community is Third World, and it doesn’t mean it is inferior. There is need everywhere.” The hospital also offers four-day work weeks, limited emergency-room calls and eight weeks off each year to pursue other interests or missionary work. (Read more)

While that method has worked in Kansas, Michigan is trying to draw new doctors the old fashioned way—through incentives. Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill this week that hopes to bring more doctors to under-served areas by increasing "the maximum annual repayment benefit for a doctor from $25,000 to $40,000, which "creates a lifetime cap of $200,000," reports the Midland Daily News. It also allows the state Department of Community Health "to give preference to physicians studying general practice, family practice, obstetrics, pediatrics or internal medicine." (Read more)

1/3 of rural roads in some states in poor condition; many rural bridges deficient; death rates high

About one-third of rural roads in Connecticut, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Hawaii, Michigan and Kansas are rated as being in poor condition, according to a report released Thursday by The Road Information Program, funded by lobbies interested in highways and their safety. TRIP says federal transportation data from 2012 rated 15 percent of the nation's major rural roads as being in poor condition and another 40 percent as mediocre or fair. Data from 2013 shows that "12 percent of the nation’s rural bridges were rated as structurally deficient, and 10 percent were functionally obsolete."

Connecticut's rural roads are in the worst shape, with 35 percent rated as being in poor condition, the report says. Next are Rhode Island and West Virginia, at 33 percent; Hawaii and Michigan, 32 percent; Kansas, 30 percent; Oklahoma, 29 percent; Maine, 28 percent; Mississippi, 25 percent; Arkansas and Missouri, 23 percent; Washington, 22 percent; New Mexico, Alabama and Vermont, 21 percent; Alaska, 20 percent; New Hampshire and Virginia, 18 percent; and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, 17 percent.

One-fourth of all rural bridges in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island were rated as deficient. Iowa was next, at 22 percent, followed by South Dakota, 21 percent; Oklahoma, 20 percent; Hawaii and Nebraska, 19 percent; North Dakota, 17 percent; Maine and Louisiana, 16 percent; Missouri and New Hampshire, 15 percent; Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Wyoming, New York and Michigan, 14 percent; and West Virginia and California, 13 percent.

The report found that in 2012 non-interstate rural roads "had a traffic fatality rate of 2.21 deaths for every 100 million vehicle miles of travel, compared to a fatality rate on all other roads of 0.78 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles of travel." The highest fatality rate was in South Carolina, which had 3.99 deaths per every 100 million vehicle miles of travel, compared to 0.68 on all other roads.

South Carolina was followed by Florida, 3.35 fatalities per every 100 million miles, compared to 0.95 on other roads; West Virginia, 2.8 and 0.99; Texas, 2.76/1.03; Arkansas, 2.71/0.87; Tennessee, 2.68/0.95; Arizona, 2.66/1.11; Kentucky, 2.64/0.78; California, 2.61/0.63; Pennsylvania, 2.6/0.91; Oklahoma, 2.52/0.92; Hawaii, 2.48/.089; North Carolina, 2.44/0.64; Montana, 2.4/0.95; North Dakota, 2.33/0.77; Kansas, 2.26/0.74; South Dakota, 2.21/0.74; Ohio, 2.15/0.63; New York, 2.13/0.59; and Indiana, 2.09/0.56.

"TRIP is sponsored by insurance companies, equipment manufacturers, distributors and suppliers, businesses involved in highway and transit engineering and construction, labor unions, and organizations concerned with an efficient and safe surface transportation network that promotes economic development and quality of life," its website says.

Immigrants in rural Minnesota share culture and heritage through folk art

Rural immigrants in some corners of Minnesota have been able to share their culture and heritage with locals, and each other, "with the help of arts groups, local festivals and public money that supports cultural pursuits," Gregg Aamot reports for MinnPost. (Aamot photo: The "Tapestry of Friendship")

"Lisa Rathje, a folklorist and teacher at Goucher College in Baltimore, traveled throughout Minnesota as a consultant for the Minnesota State Arts Board, looking, in particular, for examples of folk art," Aamot writes. "She said she was struck by the interesting work being done by immigrants and refugees—much of it non-commercially—and the interesting combination of cultures that can be expressed in various works." Rathje told him, “Newer immigrants and refugees are aware of that tension—aware of those shared lives and that gets revealed in their work."

One place where that is clearly evident is in Pelican Rapids, "an Otter Tail County town of 2,500 people where Somalis, Eastern Europeans, Latin Americans and others were first drawn by work at West Central Turkeys and other agricultural industries," Aamot writes. "Many now express their talent and culture through art."

"This intersection of old and new is captured in a community quilt, called the 'Tapestry of Friendship,' on display at the local library," Aamot writes. "The 25 patches on the quilt were made by local women with roots in older immigrant communities—such as Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch and Irish—and newer ones, including Somali, Bosnian and Mexican. Native American culture is also represented in the quilt. In an accompanying pamphlet, each woman explains the origins and significance of each patch in a short essay." (Read more)

Rural schools increasing in population; Hispanic students up 32.5 percent from 2008 to 2012

Rural student populations are on the rise. More than 10.5 million students were enrolled in rural schools in 2012, an increase of 9.1 percent from 2008, when the number was about 9.6 million students, Daniel Showalter reports for the Daily Yonder. During that same time enrollment decreased in suburban areas by 7.8 percent and by 1.4 percent in urban areas. (The interactive Yonder map shows changes in rural student populations. To see results by county click here) 

The number of non-white students increased significantly in rural areas from 2008 to 2012, rising by 23.9 percent, while the number of rural white students increased by 4.7 percent, Showalter writes. Hispanic enrollment increased by 32.5 percent, Asian by 22.7 percent and African American by 1.5 percent. All data was taken from the National Center for Education Statistics, which labels rural differently from how the Yonder labels it. (Read more)

Journalist's book details Appalachian furniture maker's fight to keep jobs from being outsourced

Beth Macy

Inspired by a story she wrote in 2012 for The Roanoke Times, journalist Beth Macy has taken the idea one step further and turned it into a book, Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - and Helped Save an American Town. In April Columbia University gave Macy a $30,000 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, which is "given annually to aid in the completion of a significant work of nonfiction on a topic of American political or social concern," Carole Tarrant reports for the Times. Macy left the paper in May to work on a second book.

The book, set to be published Tuesday, July 15, centers on John Bassett, who lives and works in Henry County, Virginia, an area where 19,000 jobs have been outsourced, Ralph Berrier reports for the Times. Macy's story chronicles "how the brash, cocky, opinionated Bassett had been cast aside by his own family and was left with one small factory in Galax, Va., the Vaughan-Bassett company. From that humble outpost, he launched the largest anti-dumping petition against Chinese manufacturers—and he won. He pumped the money back into his company and added jobs."

Macy told Berrier, "The story has everything. He’s a rich Bassett, he’s a fighter who took on China and he won in the International Court of Trade and he’s from Galax. It’s a family-feud story, and it’s the story of every factory that closed in America, from textiles to whatever. I said, 'I have to go meet him.'" (Read more)
  
New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin says Factory Man "is loaded with colorful minutiae . . . but it also seriously traces an important arc of regional decline, as the conditions that once made Appalachia ideal furniture country begin to fail." (Read more)

Kirkus Reviews says: "The author’s brightly written, richly detailed narrative not only illuminates globalization and the issue of offshoring, but succeeds brilliantly in conveying the human costs borne by low-income people displaced from a way of life—i.e., factory jobs that their Appalachian families had worked for generations." (Read more)

UPDATE, July 15: Macy was interviewed on "Fresh Air." To hear it, click here.

Dairy Farmers of America agrees to settle lawsuit and pay farmers in Northeast $50 million

While the Dairy Farmers of America cooperative is not admitting any wrongdoing, it has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Vermont and New York farmers for $50 million. The farmers filed the suit in 2009, claiming they lost $341 million when DFA, Deans Foods and HP Hood "worked together to suppress prices paid to farmers and deny them access to milk processors," reports Agri-Pulse, a Washington newsletter. The complaint against Hood was dismissed in 2010, and Dean agreed in 2011 to pay $30 million.

Monica Massey, vice-president of DFA's Kansas City office, told Agri-Pulse: "While we believe the allegations against us are without merit and the activities of the DFA, Dairy Marketing Service and other affiliated milk marketing cooperatives in the Northeast benefited cooperative members and independent producers alike, the cost to continue to defend ourselves has become too great."

The number of farmers who will receive money is uncertain. DFA said in 2011 that as many as 13,000 farmers would split proceeds, but lawyers said at the time that the number was less than half that figure, Agri-Pulse writes. "The Boston milk market order website shows nearly 6,500 farmers in New England and New York state; the total grows to about 11,900 if Pennsylvania and Maryland are included." Agri-Pulse is subscription only, but a free trial is available by clicking here.

Farm writer is getting his kicks on old Route 66, seeing rural America's hidden treasures

Chris Clayton of DTN/The Progressive Farmer is getting a firsthand look at rural America by traveling old U.S. Route 66, "and taking a look at the history, the towns and different kinds of agriculture and farming businesses along the route," he writes. (Clayton photo: Funks Grove, Ill.)

During his travels Clayton has met many interesting people and seen many interesting sights. One such is in Madison County, Illinois, where the agricultural history is rooted in horseradish, Clayton writes. "You might not discover that when passing the towns of Collinsville or Edwardsville on the interstate. If you do veer off the four-lane, you are more likely to learn about catsup than horseradish. The 170-foot-tall Brooks Rich & Tangy Catsup bottle/water tower is considered the world's tallest. It's on State Route 159 in Collinsville, a short jaunt off the Route 66 byway." (Read more)

There's also Illinois resident Tim Seifert, a modern farmer living in a world bent on nostalgia. While Seifert uses technology to help on his farm outside Auburn, Ill., the big attraction in his neck of the woods is "a 1.4-mile stretch of brick road north of town, created in 1932, that was an early section of Route 66," Clayton writes. Seifert told him, "I don't know what the affiliation is, but they will stop and put a beanie baby or something on the road. They will get down on their knees and take photos of the bricks."

"It needs to be preserved, but on the other hand, it's not functional," Seifert said. "We've got 80,000-pound trucks running up and down it, and the bridge is so narrow you can't get across it with equipment. So we have got nostalgia, that's fine, but it kind of hinders our progress from time to time." (Read more)

'Rolling coal' drivers fighting 'War on Coal' by purposely releasing more exhaust into the air

How far will some people go to protest government regulations? A trend that has quietly gained steam, to a large extent in rural areas, is called rolling coal, "in which truck drivers spend thousands of dollars altering their rides to produce ever greater amounts of smoke" as a form of political protest, Ryan Grenoble writes for theHuffington Post. (YouTube image)

"Modifications include a variety of components that increase the amount of fuel entering the truck's engine. When there's so much fuel that it fails to combust properly, 'it leaves the engine as soot,' according to an article on DieselHub.com, a website dedicated to diesel truck owners," Grenoble writes. "That soot, which coal rollers call "Prius repellent" in online videos and forums and on decals on their trucks, can then be channeled up through 'smoke stacks,' where it exits onto bystanders (or a Prius following too closely) in a thick, pollutant-heavy black cloud."

One seller of smoke stack kits told the Post, “I run into a lot of people that really don’t like Obama at all. If he’s into the environment, if he’s into this or that, we’re not. I hear a lot of that. To get a single stack on my truck—that’s my way of giving them the finger. You want clean air and a tiny carbon footprint? Well, screw you.” (Read more)

Some in South wary of plans to trim voting precincts

When a Republican member of the elections board in Cleveland County, North Carolina, explained the plan to consolidate five voting precincts into two, it sounded logical and helpful. He spoke of wheelchair access and $10,000 in savings every election. However, some African Americans are skeptical about the true reasons behind the change, Richard Fausset writes for The New York Times. (NYT graphic)

Those precincts have a lot of black voters who often vote Democratic. "We know that this is part of a bigger trend—a movement to suppress people's right to vote," said Rev. Dante Murphy, president of the Cleveland County branch of the NAACP.

The same issue has arisen in a number of communities, especially those in the South, "where changes to election laws no longer require advance approval from the federal government after a year-old Supreme Court ruling voided a key section of the Voting Rights Act," Fausset reports.

Voting-rights advocates say such changes and some new state laws that limit ballot access and require voters to show picture IDs add up to a deliberate effort to reduce voting by minorities, Fausset reports, while supporters of the changes say the new laws protect against voter fraud and can even be more cost-effective. Though in many places the obvious racism of the 1960s is mostly a thing of the past, "what often lingers is a racial mistrust that can make the moving of a polling place from a fellowship hall to a public park seem innocent to some, sinister to others," Fausset notes.

Francis X. De Luca, president of the Civitas Institute, a conservative North Carolina think tank, said, "This is something that local people can work out." However, voting-rights advocates and usually Democrats—whose success in states such as North Carolina depend on good black voter turnout—are less trusting. Others say local election changes are difficult to follow because they no longer need to get approval from the U.S. Justice Department.

The NAACP's Murphy said the reduction in polling places would cause longer lines, which might discourage some voters, and people might show up at the wrong location. Election-board member Alan Langley voiced surprise that anyone would think the proposal "was based on racial, or even partisan, motives," Fausset reports.

Painkillers most popular in the South; Ala. leads

Powerful painkillers are a contributing factor in the the rising rate of overdose deaths in the U.S. Now the government is pointing out the states whose doctors write the most prescriptions, Mike Stobbe writes for The Associated Press.

The reports are part of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's campaign to prevent deaths from prescription opioids such as Vicodin and OxyContin. Drug overdose deaths reached 41,000 in 2011, and 41 percent of them had to do with prescription painkillers. "The state account comes from a database of U.S. retail pharmacies that fill the bulk of prescriptions," Stobbe writes.

In 2012, Southern states had the most prescriptions. Alabama had the most, with 143 for every 100 people, and Tennessee was second. The other leading states were West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana. Southern doctors also prescribed the most antibiotics and stimulants for children. Although chronic disease rates are often higher in the South, research has shown that doesn't explain the disparity.

"Prescriptions go up; deaths go up. Prescriptions go down; deaths go down," said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden. However, evidence to confirm the connection is lacking. The CDC keeps track of death rates but combines all drug overdoses, including heroin and cocaine. Those rankings are not the same as the prescription list. "But officials cite studies that show higher overdose rates when there are more prescriptions of painkillers and larger doses prescribed," Stobbe writes.

To help fix the problem, officials suggest more prescription drug monitoring programs at the state level and laws to stop "pill mills," which are offices and clinics that prescribe too many addictive medicines. In Florida, pill mills became a big issue in the last 10 years, but from 2010-2011, the state set up stricter pain clinic regulations, and police did some raids. "By 2012, prescriptions for oxycodone alone fell 24 percent, and the death rate for prescription drug overdoses dropped 23 percent," Stobbe writes. (Read more)

Weekly editor-publisher wins Virginia prize for editorial leadership in the community for third time

Anne Adams

We're about three months late with this, but when a weekly editor has won a state's top award for editorial leadership three times in six years, it remains newsworthy.

Anne Adams, editor and publisher of The Recorder in Monterey, Va., has won the 27th annual D. Lathan Mims Award for Editorial Leadership in the Community from the Virginia Press Association.

"The citizens of Bath and Highland counties should be glad that Adams is on their side," wrote Marian Anderfuren, associate vice president for interactive communications at Tidewater Community College and a former editor at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk. "She demonstrates deep knowledge and affection for her community, and she beats a steady drum for good government, open official dealings, and plain common sense."

Anderfuren cited Adams' battle with a school superintendent over transparency in the school budget, "outrage at a redistricting ploy by the Virginia Senate that seemed to undermine a favorite son, Creigh Deeds," and her groundbreaking coverage of Deeds' attempted murder by his son, who then committed suicide. The incident highlighted the need for more mental-health beds in the Virginia Alleghenies and resulted in reform.

The award, presented for work published during the 2013 calendar year, is named for the late D. Lathan Mims, a former editor and general manager of the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg and a former president of the press association. Adams won it in 2007-08 and 2010. Only one other editor has won it more times; four-time winner John Edwards, longtime editor of the Smithfield Times, was this year's runner-up. (Read more)

New York anti-fracking ruling could have major impact on the rest of the country

Getty Images by Andrew Burton:
Anti-fracking protesters in New York

Last week's 5-2 ruling by New York's high court that towns can use zoning ordinances to ban hydraulic fracturing could have major implications for the rest of the country. The ruling— stemming from cases in the small towns of Dryden and Middlefield, which had been sued for banning fracking—could open the door for other states to pass similar laws, Steven Mufson reports for The Washington Post.

"There has been a wave of local resolutions, laws and proposals to ban or limit fracking and the disposal of fracking waste, including 35 in New Jersey, 13 in California, 10 in Colorado, 18 in Michigan and many more in Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, according to the activist group Food & Water Watch," Mufson writes. "Even the District has adopted a resolution urging a prohibition on fracking in the George Washington National Forest."

"In the eyes of the oil and gas industry, though, putting the power to regulate fracking in local hands is bad for business and bad for U.S. energy policy," Mufson writes. "Shale gas drilling has unlocked vast reserves, and shale gas now accounts for about 40 percent of total U.S. natural gas production. Without it, companies would be lining up to import natural gas, not export it as many now want to do."

In Colorado, 59 percent of voters in Longmont, Colo., cast ballots in favor of a ban on fracking and waste disposal, even though nationwide industry groups poured money into Longmont Taxpayers for Common Sense, which opposed the ban," Mufson writes. "Since then, four more Colorado towns have also banned or declared a long moratorium on fracking. Court challenges have been filed." (Read more)

Rural residents more likely than urban ones to pay high-deductibles on health insurance

Researchers at the University of Southern Maine found that based on data from the National Health Interview Survey from 2007 to 2010 almost 23 percent of rural residents purchased high-deductible health insurance plans, compared to 20 percent of urban residents, Abigail Gay reports for the Daily Yonder. "The more rural the county, the more likely residents were to purchase high-deductible plans, the study showed. More than a quarter of people living in rural counties that were not adjacent to a metro area had high-deductible plans."

"The study used data from before the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act," Gay writes. "The act’s requirements that many residents get private insurance could cause another spike in the purchase of high-deductible plans, the study said." Researchers found that federal health reform “has the potential to greatly expand health insurance coverage for many rural Americans. However, the impact on access to health care may depend, in part, on the benefit design of the plans into which rural residents enroll.”

The study found that rural residents had a harder time affording prescription drugs in 2013, Gay writes. Also, rural residents spent an average of 26 percent more on out-of-pocket expenses than their urban counterparts who had the same premium. Since 2007, high-deductible enrollments have risen 47 percent. In 2012, about 33 percent of people who had private medical insurance were enrolled in high-deductible plans. (Read more) (Maine Rural Health Research Center graphic)

Rural Radio station provides news, sports and music for rural audience

Rural Radio features everything rural. The station, SiriusXM Channel 80, which went live on July 15, 2013, is the first rural-concentrated station, providing "a variety of programming focused on agriculture, equine, hunting, fishing, western sports and rural lifestyle," Kelsey Johnson reports for RFD-TV. Approaching its one-year anniversary, Rural Radio includes news reports on agriculture, the commodities market, local weather, FFA and music. It also includes results, highlights and individual features from western sports such as bull riding, cutting pen, horse shows and bass fishing. (Read more) (Rural Radio daily schedule)

Both parties attacking House centrists, trying to unseat major players in upcoming elections

As election season nears, House Democrats are trying to unseat Republicans in areas where President Obama won the majority of the vote, while House Republicans are targeting Democrats in areas where Obama lost. Both sides have set their sights on beating incumbents of the opposing party, even if those politicians have more often than not voted in favor of the other party.

"As the ranks of centrist lawmakers in both parties have thinned, political operatives' efforts to oust them have intensified," Kristina Peterson reports for The Wall Street Journal. While once there were 60 to 70 middle-of-the-road Democrats in the House, only nine remain, with two of those retiring. As a result seven Democrats—Collin Peterson (Minn.), Nick Rahall (W.V.), John Barrow (Ga.), Patrick Murphy (Fla.), Pete Gallego (Texas) and two Arizona lawmakers—are the new targets of the GOP. At the same time Democrats are focusing their sights on 14 House Republicans in districts won by Obama in 2012. (WSJ graphic)

Even though Peterson, the ranking Democrat and former chairman of House Agriculture, considers himself a conservative and voted against federal health reform, the National Republican Campaign Committee spent $3.2 million in Minnesota on advertisements attacking Peterson and Rep. Rick Nolan, Peterson writes. Peterson said at a fundraiser, "The Republicans are going after me because there's nobody else to go after. I'm the bottom of the barrel." Peterson won his 2012 re-election with 60 percent of the vote, while Obama earned 44 percent of the vote.

But pro-Republican ads have continued to link Democratic candidates to Obama, even if those candidates rarely vote in favor of the president, Peterson writes. "It is a strategy aimed at tying conservative Democrats to a national party viewed with suspicion at home."  David Wasserman, a House expert at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, told her, "It is simpler for voters to connect the dots between a congressman and a president of the same party than to understand nuances those members are trying to convey."

Democrats are "employing a similar strategy against the 14 House Republicans they are targeting," Peterson writes. "A new paid online ad campaign from Democrats blasted House Republicans for stalling on immigration a year after the Senate passed bipartisan legislation." (Read more)

Drought-stricken Californians wasting water; neighbors encouraged to tattle on overuse

Residents in drought-stricken California are turning against one another, using long-standing grudges as an excuse to try to get their neighbors in trouble. Despite severe drought, many residents have done little to conserve water, and some have continued using it excessively in spite of the consequences, Ian Lovett reports for The New York Times. "In five months since the drought emergency was declared, Californians have cut their water consumption only 5 percent compared with recent years, according to state officials—a far cry from the 20 percent that Gov. Jerry Brown called for in January."

As as result, residents are being asked "to tattle on their neighbors for wasting water—and the residents have responded in droves," Lovett writes. "Sacramento, for instance, has received more than 6,000 reports of water waste this year, up twentyfold from last year," and the city has issued more than 2,000 notices of violations.

And when telling on neighbors doesn't work, "some drought-conscious Californians have turned not only to tattling but also to an age-old strategy to persuade friends and neighbors to cut back: shaming," Lovett writes. "On Twitter, radio shows and elsewhere, Californians are indulging in such sports as shower-shaming (trying to embarrass a neighbor or relative who takes a leisurely wash), car-wash-shaming and lawn-shaming." (This photo of a San Francisco city employee washing a sidewalk with a hose was posted on Twitter)

Officials in Los Angeles are going so far as to "offer residents door hangers, which they are encouraged to slip anonymously around the doorknobs of neighbors whose sprinklers are watering the sidewalk," Lovett writes. " The notices offer a prim reminder of the local water rules and the drought. The Irvine Ranch Water District, meanwhile, shows residents how their water consumption compares with that of other homes in the area—and puts labels on customers’ bills that range from 'low volume' to 'wasteful.'” (Read more)

Nominations for Gish Award for courage, integrity, tenacity in rural journalism must be in mail Aug. 1

Nominations for the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism, given by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, must be mailed by Aug. 1.

Gishes at award announcement, 2004

The award is named for Tom and Pat Gish, who published The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., for more than 51 years. They withstood advertiser boycotts, business competition, declining population, personal attacks, and even the burning of their office to give their readers the kind of journalism often lacking in rural areas, and were the first winners of the award named for them.

Other winners have been the Ezzell family of The Canadian (Tex.) Record, in 2007; James E. Prince III and Stanley Dearman, current and former publishers of The Neshoba Democrat of Philadelphia, Miss., in 2008; Samantha Swindler, editor and publisher of the Headlight Herald in Tillamook, Ore., in 2010 for her work as editor of the Corbin, Ky., Times-Tribune and managing editor of the Jacksonville (Tex.) Daily Progress; in 2011, Stanley Nelson and the Concordia Sentinel of Ferriday, La.; and in 2012, Jonathan and Susan Austin of the Yancey County News in Burnsville, N.C. No award was given in 2013.

The Institute seeks nominations that measure up, at least in major respects, to the records of previous winners, which are detailed at www.RuralJournalism.org. Nominators should send detailed letters to Institute Director Al Cross, explaining how their nominees show the kind of exemplary courage, tenacity and integrity that the Gishes demonstrated in their rigorous pursuit of rural journalism. Detailed documentation does not have to accompany the nomination, but is helpful in choosing finalists, and additional documentation may be requested or required. Questions may be directed to Cross at 859-257-3744 or al.cross@uky.edu. The award will be presented at a dinner in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 13.

Letters should be postmarked by Aug. 1 and mailed to: Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, 122 Grehan Journalism Building, University of Kentucky, Lexington KY 40506-0042.

National Newspaper Association announces individual winners in annual Better Newspaper Contest

The National Newspaper Association, which is the main organization for weekly newspapers but also includes many small dailies, has announced the individual winners in its annual Better Newspaper Contest. It reserved announcement of the general-excellence awards for its Oct. 2-4 convention in San Antonio, but you might make some reasonable guesses from the list of news awards by paper and perhaps the following list of winners by in issue-oriented categories, by circulation and/or frequency classifications:

Best local news coverage (daily and non-daily)
Circulation of 6,000 or more: First place, The Washington Missourian; second, The Standard-Banner, Jefferson City, Tenn.; third, the Cape Gazette, Lewes, Del; honorable mention, The Livingston Parish News, Denham Springs, La.
Circulation 3,000 to 5,999: The Alamance News, Graham, N.C; second, the Mount Desert Islander, Bar Harbor, Me.; third, The North Scott Press, Eldridge, Iowa; honorable mention, the Wise County Messenger, Decatur, Tex.

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Under 3,000: Sangre de Cristo Chronicle, Angel Fire, N.M.; second, the Ozona Stockman of Texas; third, Nebraska's West Point News; honorable mention, North Dakota's Tioga Tribune.

Best investigative story or series
Dailies: James Beaty, Kandra Wells, Kevin Harvison, Brandy Jeffreys of the McAlester News-Capital, for a package of stories on the 40th anniversary of an Oklahoma prison riot; second and third place, Nick Hytrek of the Sioux City Journal, for stories on a cold case and early release of Iowa prison inmates.
Non-dailies, circulation 10,000 or more: First place, Tom Dunlop, Sara Brown and photographer Ray Ewing, The Vineyard Gazette, Edgartown, Mass., for a series on coastal erosion; second, Jennifer Johnson, The Beaumont Examiner, on waste in a Texas school district.
Non-dailies, circulation 3,000-9,999: First place, Mike Koshmrl of the Jackson Hole News & Guide, for a story on the local airport board making regular "official" trips to Hawaii (here's a follow-up); second, Jared Strong of the Times Herald in Carroll, Iowa, on a killer who fell through cracks in the system; third, Publisher Tom Boney Jr., Tomas Murawski, Janice Crisp and Kristy Bailey of The Alamance News, Graham, N.C., for an examination of a state agency's cases against the local sheriff.
Non-dailies, under 3,000: First place, Phil Johnson of The Western News, Libby, Mont., for stories (here's one) on overtaxation; second, Melissa Meinzer of Missouri Lawyers Weekly, St. Louis, for stories on lawyer discipline hearings; third, Amy R. Sisk and Resa Haukedahl of the Tioga Tribune, for stories showing the need for more law enforcement in the North Dakota oil-boom town; honorable mention, Bill Moss of the Hendersonville Lightning in North Carolina, for "Legal fights imperil restitution promises."

Best editorial (daily and non-daily)
10,000 or more: The Taos News, for an editorial by Joan Livingston criticizing the city council and mayor for circumventing of New Mexico's open-meetings law.
6,000-9,999: The Cody Enterprise of Wyoming, for an editorial by Bruce McCormack criticizing a state representative's rudeness.
3,000-5,999: The Hutchinson Leader of Minnesota for "County has gone gun crazy," an editorial by Doug Hanneman.
Under 3,000: The Sangre de Cristo Chronicle of Angel Fire, N.M., for "Red River is not above the law, an editorial by Jesse Chaney.

Best editorial pages (daily and non-daily)
6,000 or more: First place, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle of Cheyenne; second, the Leelanau Enterprise of Michigan; third, The Washington Missourian; honorable mention, the Antelope Valley Press of California and the Ellsworth American of Maine.
Under 6,000: First place, the Mount Desert Islander of Bar Harbor, Maine (same ownership as the Ellsworth American); second, the West Point News of Nebraska; third, The Clarendon Enterprise of Texas; honorable mention, the Iowa Falls Times-Citizen.

Best environmental story (daily and non-daily)
9,000 or more: Matthew Renda and photographer John Hart of The Union, Grass Valley, Calif., for a series on the Yuba River.
Under 9,000: David Bunker of Moonshine Ink, Truckee, Calif., for a story on quagga mussels in Lake Tahoe.

Best health story (daily and non-daily)
6,000 or more: First place, Megan Moser of The Manhattan Mercury of Kansas; second, Ginny Privitar of The Chronicle, Chester, N.Y., third, Starla Pointer of teh News-Register, McMinnvile, Ore.
Under 6,000: First place, Luige del Puerto and Jeremy Duda, the Arizona Capitol Times, Phoenix; second, Maek Good of the Mount Desert Islander; third, Ellary Prenice of The Paynesville Press in Minnesota.

Best education story
Dailies: Aerin Curtis of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, for a story on new teacher-evaluation standards.
Large non-dailies: Steve Marion and Ronnie Housley of The Standard-Banner of Jefferson City, Tenn., for a story about reading that was easy reading: "It isn't long, but full of good writing," the judges wrote.
Small non-dailies: Claire K. Racine of the Westmore News, Port Chester, N.Y., for "Bullied student slits her wrists." (She survived.)

Freedom of information (daily and non-daily): Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, for editorials on openness at the University of Wyoming; second, Arizona Capital Times, Phoenix, for reports on lobbying.

Best website (daily and non-daily: Hendersonville (N.C.) Lightning; second, Santa Clarita Valley Signal of California; third (tie), the News-Register, McMinnville, Ore., and Lakota Country Times, Martin, S.D.

Other categories include feature story, localized story, performing arts story, review, obituary, cartoon, column, typography, special section, photo essay, and use of photographs. A list of all winners by category is here. The contest also includes an advertising division. For more information about the contest and the convention, see www.nnaweb.org.

Big gas company offers Pennsylvania residents $50,000 not to sue for current or future problems

One company has found a way to avoid lawsuits stemming from complaints about noise and air quality from fracking practices. EQT Corporation offered residents living near a gas well in Washington County, Pennsylvania $50,000 "if they would agree to release the company from any legal liability, for current operations as well as those to be carried out in the future," Naveena Sadasivam reports for ProPublica. "It covered potential health problems and property damage, and gave the company blanket protection from any kind of claim over noise, dust, light, smoke, odors, fumes, soot, air pollution or vibrations." (ProPublica photo: Oil and gas well pad in Washington County)

"The agreement also defined the company's operations as not only including drilling activity but the construction of pipelines, power lines, roads, tanks, ponds, pits, compressor stations, houses and buildings," Sadasivam writes. Doug Clark, a gas-lease attorney in Pennsylvania who mainly represents landowners, told Sadasivam, "The release is so incredibly broad and such a laundry list. You're releasing for everything including activity that hasn't even occurred yet. It's crazy."

While these type of agreements are common in areas around airports, wind farms and landfills, it's rare for one to include oil and gas wells, Sadasivam writes. Clark told her, "This is only the second time I've seen one. They're absolutely not common at all."

EQT said about 85 percent of residents signed agreements "but some of the residents have refused to negotiate with the company," Sadasivam writes.  Homeowner Gary Baumgardner, who was approached by EQT with the offer in January, told her, "We're being pushed out of our home and they want to insult us with this offer." (Read more)

Texas, North Dakota produce nearly half of U.S. oil; Lone Star State is close to surpassing Iraq

More than one-third of U.S. crude oil is produced in Texas and nearly half of the nation's oil production is limited to two states -- Texas and North Dakota, according to data from April 2013 to April 2014 released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Texas has doubled its oil production over the past three years and now accounts for 36 percent of U.S oil production, reports Simone Sebastian for Fuel Fix, a Texas-based energy news outlet owned by Hearst Corp. In April the Lone Star State averaged 3 million barrels of oil a day, nearly as much as Iraq, which produced 3.2 million per day. Iraq's supply fell to 2.9 million barrels per day in June, so if production in Texas continues to rise, which it has every month since 2011, then the next report will show that Texas produces more oil than Iraq. Meanwhile, the oil and gas boom in North Dakota has skyrocketed production in that state, with production growing by 185 percent from April 2011 to April 2014. (Read more)

North Dakota topped a million barrels per day for the first time in April, and the state accounts for 12 percent of U.S. oil production, reports PennEnergy. Texas and North Dakota now produce 48 percent of U.S. oil, up from 26 percent in April 2010, while the Gulf of Mexico's crude oil production dropped to 17 percent of the U.S. total, down from 27 percent in 2010. In April the U.S. produced 8.4 million barrels of oil per day. (Read more) (Fuel Fix graphic)

9,166 post offices have cut hours in last 2 years; USPS offers buyouts to more than 3,000 postmasters

Over the last two years, 9,166 post offices have had their retail hours shortened, and 1,257 are now only open two hours a day, Federal Times reports in a story saying more than 3,000 postmasters will be offered buyouts and early retirement.

"But the Postal Service is also working on expanding its 'village post office' program, where the agency teams up with a local retailer to offer some postal services," Andy Medici reports. "By being located inside established businesses and other places consumers already frequent, VPOs offer Postal Service customers time-saving convenience, and in most cases, longer hours than regular Post Offices, U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Darlene Casey told Medici.

In the buyout offer, "Postmasters will get up to $10,000 if they choose to resign or if they take an early or optional retirement option, according to documents emailed to employees by the Postal Service over the last few days," Medici reports. "Those who take the incentives will leave the Postal Service Sept. 30." Postmasters who don't take the incentives can apply for other jobs within the service, but could lose their jobs when it implements a "reduction in force" plan on Jan. 9, 2015.

"A postmaster who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution said there are not enough jobs available to accommodate all of the postmasters who want one," Medici writes. "She said the changes to the post offices that will follow the loss of the postmasters, such as shorter hours, will not help make the Postal Service financially viable in the long run." (Read more)

Federal judge blocks underground coal mine expansion, saying climate change not considered

A federal judge has blocked the proposed expansion of an underground coal mine on federal land in Colorado "because federal agencies failed to consider the future global-warming damages from burning fossil fuels," John Cushman reports for InsideClimate News. U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson said that when agencies touted the economic benefits of Arch Coal's proposal they should have considered climate-change effects, including the bulldozing of six miles of roads on 1,700 acres of public land in the Sunset Roadless Area in Summit County.

"The decision was a significant judicial endorsement of a policy tool known as the 'social cost of carbon,' which economists and climate scientist use to put a price in today's dollars on the damages from drought, flood, storm, fire, disease and so forth caused by future global warming due to our emissions from burning fossil fuels," Cushman writes.

In his decision Jackson wrote, "It is arbitrary to offer detailed projections of a project's upside while omitting a feasible projection of the project's costs . . . By deciding not to quantify the costs at all, the agencies effectively zeroed out the cost," a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, Cushman writes. "Common sense tells me that quantifying the effect of greenhouse gases in dollar terms is difficult at best," Jackson wrote. "The critical importance of the subject, however, tells me that a 'hard look' has to include a 'hard look' at whether this tool, however imprecise it might be, would contribute to a more informed assessment of the impacts than if it were simply ignored." (Read more)

Tennessee sets stricter limits on pseudoephedrine

Tennessee has made it tougher to purchase over-the-counter drugs used to make methamphetamine. This week a new law went into effect putting a cap on purchases of pseudoephedrine without a doctor's prescription to 5.8 grams per month and 28.8 grams per year, which "is about five months' worth of the maximum dose of Sudafed," the most common brand of the product, Briona Arradondo reports for WTVC in Chattanooga. Last year state authorities busted 1,700 meth labs and removed 260 children from meth-related situations.

The Senate and Republican Gov. Bill Haslam had supported lowering amounts to 4.8 grams per month and 14.4 grams per year, but the House favored the higher limits, which are still much lower than previous laws, which permitted purchasing 9 grams of pseudoephedrine per month. The legislature is controlled by Republicans; some in the Senate asked Haslam to veto the bill. He let it linger for months before letting it become law. (Read more)

USPS to close up to 82 processing plants in 2015; weekly newspaper lobby decries rural impact

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe announced Monday that as many as 82 mail-processing plants will close next year, a move that would cut annual operating costs by about $750 million, reports Post & Parcel. In 2012 and 2013 the U.S. Postal Service closed 141 facilities, saving about $850 million a year. New closures would drop the number of facilities to 238, from 673 in 2006. A list of the 82 facilities to be closed is here. A USPS memo about the move is here.

In response to the announcement, National Newspaper Association President Robert M. Williams Jr., publisher of Georgia's Blackshear Times, wrote a letter to Donahoe expressing the importance of mail service in rural and small towns.

“We want postal reform legislation this year,” Williams wrote. “We have looked for several years now for legislation that balances the needs of USPS, of the postal workforce and of mailers, particularly those in rural areas hard hit by the previous round of postal plant closings. We recognize that the Postal Service is a powerful federal agency that influences our advertising marketplaces and therefore must be fairly regulated. But we object to Congress’s having tried repeatedly to use the postage-selling abilities of USPS as a cash cow. We are very hopeful that we will see legislation this year that strikes the right balance and that we can vigorously support it before these plant closings kick in. NNA firmly believes that mail service to rural and small-town America is critical to local economies. We will not stand by quietly when it is put at risk.”

FAA to miss another deadline on drone regulations

News-media and other commercial drone operators waiting for the Federal Aviation Administration to release regulations on the unmanned aerial vehicles will have to keep waiting. An internal government audit found that the FAA, which has already missed several deadlines, will miss the September 2015 deadline set by Congress "because of technical and regulatory obstacles that are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon," Craig Whitlock reports for The Washington Post.

"The FAA is significantly behind schedule in drawing up rules and standards to ensure that drones are airworthy, that pilots are trained properly and that their aircraft won’t interfere with other air traffic, the Transportation Department’s inspector general concluded in a highly critical audit," Whitlock writes. "The report said the FAA has so many hurdles to confront that it is unclear when — or if — remotely controlled aircraft can be safely integrated into U.S. airspace."

The audit said “safety risks will persist,” such as several reported cases of near misses between drones and planes, until the FAA can establish a set of rules, Whitlock writes. A Post investigation uncovered 49 military drone crashes since 2001 and two dozen civilian drone crashes since 2009, Whitlock writes. (Post map)

Meanwhile, drones have been used by farmers and journalism programs, rural journalists, the energy industry and law enforcement, and drone use was recently banned in national parks.

The FAA, which said three years ago it would issue regulations, said it plans to regulate small drones that weigh less than 55 pounds and fly below 400 feet, Whitlock writes. "The FAA has imposed a de facto ban on commercial drones until it can sort out the rules of the sky" and has only issued two commercial permits, both in Alaska, but there is fear that many operators continue to fly without regard for safety, and have shown an unwillingness to follow any rules. (Read more)

Dropping Common Core State Standards won't cost states funding, feds say; Ron Paul has an alternative

The Common Core State Standards, designed to regulate what students learn each year in school, were originally adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia, but now that states are dropping out (the latest being Louisiana), the question remains: Can states lose federal funding for choosing not to implement the standards or continue with them?

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said that Education Secretary Arne Duncan pushed states into following the standards, Alyson Klein writes for Education Week. "The proponents of Common Core claim it is not a federal takeover, but Secretary Duncan's comments and actions prove otherwise. He has already threatened Oklahoma with a loss of funding, and we may be next," Jindal said.

However, the executive director of communications for the Oklahoma State Department of Education said the state was not threatened with funding cuts, and Duncan said at a White House brieifing, "We partner with states whether they're in Common Core or have their own standards. But where we will challenge status quo is when states dummy-down standards."

But were states coerced into adopting the standards? The Obama administration did offer states with uniform, rigorous standards an edge in the "Race to the Top" grant competition, and states that wished to be waived from the No Child Left Behind Act mandates were asked to "embrace standards that would get students ready for post-secondary education," Klein writes.

States could develop their own standards; they did not have to use the Common Core. However, Klein suggests that states opting out of the NCLB law might not be able to invent standards that gain the approval of their teacher-training institutions, which is the requirement for keeping the waiver. Still, Washington state is the only one to lose its waiver so far, which resulted from teacher-evaluation problems. Also, losing the waiver wouldn't reduce a state's federal funding, but would reduce school district's flexibility: they would be forced to use the money for tutoring. (Read more)

The states that dropped Common Core aren't the only ones looking to create an alternative to it. Former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul, an opponent of the Common Core, has developed his own curriculum. Designed to prepare students for college but also benefit those who don't plan to continue their education after high school, the curriculum includes history, math, English, foreign languages, personal finance and public speaking. "The curriculum avoids the ideological biases common in public schools; for example, the government and history sections of the curriculum emphasize Austrian economics libertarian political theory and the history of liberty," Paul writes for Inforwars. Students from kindergarten through fifth grade may use the curriculum for free, while families with students in fifth grade and above must pay $250 per year and $50 per course. (Read more)

An NBC News First Read item asks what makes Paul's idea so different from the Common Core itself: "How much does this marketing pitch (self-teaching, interlocking disciplines, big-picture thinking) sound like the things conservatives love to hate about Common Core itself—which is dictating a curriculum in the first place?"

Geological Survey finds that mountaintop removal reduces fish populations in Appalachian streams

Mountaintop removal is having a negative impact on fish populations in Appalachian streams, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study published in the journal Freshwater Science. The study found that these areas have "fewer than half as many fish species and a third as many total fish as other regional waterway," Ken Ward reports for The Charleston Gazette.

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The study, which compared data from West Virginia’s heavily mined Guyandotte River basin in 1999-2001 and 2010-2011, "found no evidence that fish communities recovered over time," Ward writes. The study found that "water quality was generally more important than physical habitat for the fish community changes that were documented. The researchers found elevated selenium and electrical conductivity levels where fish communities were degraded but saw no differences in the available physical habitat." (USGS graphic: Sampling sites in the Guyandotte River basin)

Lead author Nathanial Hitt said, “Our results indicate that headwater mining may be limiting fish communities by restricting the prey base available for fish. For instance, fish species with specialized diets of stream insects were more likely to be lost from the streams over time than fish species with more diverse diets.” (Read more)

A county-by-county view of average median ages

What's the average age in your county? While the national median age in 2013 was 37.6, up from 37.5 in 2012, some counties like Utah County, Utah, boast an average age of 24.2, while Sumter County, Florida has an average age of 65.5, according to the Census Bureau. "More than 40 years -- half of a lifetime -- separates the median ages of our oldest and youngest counties," Christoper Ingraham reports for The Washington Post. "And while most counties grew older, nearly one-fifth of them saw their median age decline over the past year, in some cases by a year or more." (Read more) (Census Bureau map; for the interactive version, click here)

Colorado Supreme Court clears way for petitions for referendum to allow local fracking limits

Colorado has moved one step closer to letting its citizens determine the future of hydraulic fracturing in the state. The state Supreme Court "ruled this week that community advocates can move forward with ballot initiatives that would give local governments more control over oil and gas drilling," Ellen Gilmer reports for EnergyWire. (Denver Public Library map)

The measure, supported by the group Safe Clean Colorado and backed by Democratic Rep. Jared Polis, still needs the required 86,000 signatures to appear on the November ballot, Gilmer writes. But if it makes it on the ballot, and is approved by voters, it "would amend the state constitution to ensure that municipalities can ban or limit hydraulic fracturing and other industry activity within their borders. The measures also stipulate that mineral owners may not sue for a regulatory taking if a local government blocks development of their oil and gas."

"Industry groups argued that the initiatives contained misleading titles and were in violation of state law that requires ballot measures to address only one subject," Gilmer writes. "The court rejected the argument, finding the measures to be fairly worded and properly focused on one subject." (Read more)

Interactive map ranks all counties by health, wealth

When The New York Times published a story last week saying six Eastern Kentucky coal counties were among the top 10 hardest places to live in the U.S., there was a broader story with an interactive map showing the ranks of all 3,135 counties in the nation. (Hat tip to Covering Poverty for the reminder.)

Counties were ranked based on percentage of residents with bachelor's degree, "median household income, unemployment rate, disability rate, life expectancy and obesity," Allan Flippen writes for The Upshot, a Times blog that did the analysis. "We tried to include other factors, including income mobility and measures of environmental quality, but we were not able to find data sets covering all counties in the United States."

The 10 lowest ranked counties are Breathitt, Clay, Jackson, Lee, Leslie and Magoffin in Eastern Kentucky, along with Humphreys County, Miss.; East Carroll Parish, La.; Jefferson County, Ga.; and Lee County, Ark.  Los Alamos County, New Mexico, ranks highest, and six of the top 10 are suburbs of Washington D.C. To view the interactive map of where your county ranks click here. (Upshot map)

New York's highest court rules 5-2 that towns can use zoning ordinances to ban fracking

New York is not in a fracking state of mind. The state's high court ruled 5-2 Monday "that towns can use zoning ordinances to ban hydraulic fracturing," better known as fracking, Kate Taylor and Thomas Kaplan report for The New York Times.

"In recent years some towns, worried that the state would eventually allow the practice, have taken matters into their own hands by banning fracking within their borders," Taylor and Kaplan write. "Among them, two towns — Dryden, in Tompkins County, and Middlefield, in Otsego County — amended their zoning laws in 2011 to prohibit fracking, on the basis that it would threaten the health, environment and character of the communities." In response to those decisions, an energy company sued, "arguing that state oil and gas law pre-empted the town ordinances." (Read more)

More than 170 towns and cities in New York have used zoning laws to pass bans or moratoria, Joseph De Avila, Mike Vilensky and Russell Gold report for The Wall Street Journal. "New York is the second state in the Northeast, after Pennsylvania, to give municipalities the ability to trump state rules and curtail fracking. Courts in Colorado are examining the same issue. The Marcellus Shale is one of the most prolific natural-gas fields in the world, and 20 percent of it is under New York state." The Utica Shale is also in play. (Journal map)

"Despite the moratorium, New York has increased its use of natural gas. About 39 percent of the electricity it generates is from natural gas, up from 20 percent a decade ago, according to the federal government," the Journal writes. And fracking still has its supporters, with more than 40 communities mostly in areas atop the Marcellus Shale, having "passed resolutions in support of fracking or against bans." (Read more)

Amid oil and gas boom in South Texas, rural residents remain some of nation's poorest

Rural Texas is experiencing one of the U.S.'s greatest oil and gas booms, with a third of the state's $48 billion in tax revenue last year coming directly or indirectly from the industry, Manny Fernandez and Clifford Krauss report for The New York Times. Despite the boom, many production areas have some of the highest poverty rates in the country and the state ranks first in percentage of residents without health insurance. (NYT photo by Nicole Bengiveno: Children in La Salle County, where 39 percent live in poverty)

While oil fields in La Salle County produce more than $15 million worth of oil a day, local residents are struggling to survive, Fernandez and Krauss write. La Salle County, where President Lyndon B. Johnson worked and was reportedly inspired to help the poor, eventually with his War on Poverty, is home to one of several "makeshift, barely governed communities called colonias. An estimated 500,000 people live in about 2,300 colonias in Texas, along its 1,200-mile border with Mexico. Many colonias have benefited from infrastructure improvements in recent years. Others remain institutionalized shantytowns without basic services like water and sewers," or even police.

"Decades after Johnson took a teaching job here in 1928, the area, like the country, is a startling and incongruous mix of cascading wealth and crushing hardship," Fernandez and Krauss write. "And though the boom has helped produce fortunes for some and comfortable lives for many, for others it exists within a rural landscape of unpaved streets without garbage pickup, where few dare to drink the tap water because it tastes and smells like chlorine. It is a different kind of poverty than it was in 1928, this time surrounded by a buzz of industrial activity, not empty stretches of scrub grass. But it feels as entrenched as ever, reinforced by bad luck, bad choices, a lack of education and the isolation that allows the poor to remain invisible and adrift in lonely, distant orbits."

Studies have shown that 42 percent of residents in the colonias live below the federal poverty line, compared to the national rate of 14.3 percent, Fernandez and Krauss write. In La Salle, the median annual household income is $29,000 and 39 percent of children live in poverty. Making things worse, the boom has led rent to skyrocket and "newly hired teachers had such a hard time finding housing they could afford that the Cotulla school district opened its own trailer park for them."

Safety is also a concern, with increased traffic from the oil and gas business blamed for 11 motor vehicle fatalities this year in La Salle, up from two in 2007, Fernandez and Krauss write. Also "during the peak ozone season in 2012, Eagle Ford operations in La Salle County daily emitted 12.8 tons of nitrogen oxides and 28 tons of volatile organic compounds — pollutants that produce smog and can cause health problems — according to a report prepared by the Alamo Area Council of Governments." (Read more)