Citing rural doctor shortages, U. of Ky. will create satellite medical school, expand program in east

Citing doctor shortages in rural areas, the University of Kentucky is starting a satellite medical school in Bowling Green, expanding its medical-education program in Morehead and adding the Ashland hospital to it. UK will partner with Western Kentucky University and The Medical Center at Bowling Green and continue its collaboration with Morehead State University and St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, UK President Eli Capilouto announced Thursday.

"The Commonwealth of Kentucky has a shortage of physicians, and especially primary care physicians, throughout the state, but particularly in rural areas," Capilouto said. "This is an acute health-care need and an economic one as well."

For several years, UK and Morehead have had a program in which 32 students have completed their "third and fourth years of medical training with rural-centered clinical experiences primarily at St. Claire," a UK news release noted. That will now expand to King's Daughters Hospital in Ashland. The new programs could start as early as 2018. details are still being worked out, the release said.

Laura Ungar of The Courier-Journal notes that according to the American Association of Medical Colleges, Kentucky had "225.1 active physicians per 100,000 people in 2014, ranking the state 36th in the nation. These shortages reflect a national issue. "AAMC expects the nation will face a shortage of 46,000 to 90,000 doctors by 2025 – even as the U.S. population grows by 31 million and the number of Americans over 65 goes up 46 percent. Compounding matters, more than a quarter of active physicians nationally are 60 or older and likely to retire soon. Seeing these trends, the association in 2006 called for expanding the number of medical school graduates by 30 percent. A January report in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences said medical schools have so far increased enrollment by 23 percent."

Pressure from FCC could bring high-speed Internet to rural and under-served areas via schools

In November Education Week reported on how rural schools in northern Mississippi are paying big bucks for the state's slowest Internet. Education Week and PBS Newshour teamed up to re-visit the region and see what's being done to fix that, and use it as an example of a national problem. Correspondent John Tulenko visited Calhoun County (World Atlas map), which covers nearly 600 square miles of mostly farmland.

C.J. Weddle, a 17-year-old high school student who said she plans to get a four-year college degree, told Tulenko, "The Internet is very contrary at Vardaman High School. You have good, you have bad days, but at Vardaman, you have more bad than good. History classes are limited to books and worksheets. Well, you don’t do research on significant figures in history or significant figures the government now, and that—I think that’s really going to hurt us later. You know, why be limited to that, when there’s a whole world at your fingertips or potentially could be?"

Tulenko writes, "The Internet here is slow because it comes via old copper wires running for miles underground. Even though high-speed cables have been laid by a phone company on one side of the district, on the other side, a second company has said upgrading its service is too expensive. Without those new cables, there is no high-speed Internet for schools and students."

"But help could come from new changes to the $4 billion federal E-Rate program, which helps schools pay for Internet service," Tulenko reports. Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, "led an effort to overhaul the E-Rate program, in part by giving districts like Calhoun County the option to use federal funds to build fiber networks of their own, pressuring local telecoms to offer better deals. Recently, Calhoun County became the test case, one of the first districts to seek federal funds to build a new fiber network that included the option of a build-out of its own."

Wheeler told Tulenko, "School administrators say, I’m not going to put up with it anymore, that I’m being told it’s too expensive, or I’m being told it can’t be built. But you actually can take the situation, and the FCC will help you take that situation in your hand by funding it, that’s a game-changer. ... What we did was, we said, 'OK, schools, if you’re not being provided service or not being provided service at a reasonable rate by your local provider, you can build it yourself.'"

But as often happens when telecommunications companies are threatened with government competition, they agree to provide broadband that the had said wasn't economically viable. "Schools here won’t have to build their own network," Tulenko reports. "By inviting outside companies to bid on the job or come in with their own fiber, the district was able to secure a more attractive contract from its local providers to complete the job. But it will take some time, maybe a year." (PBS video)

Data show growing life-expectancy gap between the poor, who are more rural, and the rich

The life expectancy gap between rich and low-income Americans continues to grow, says a report by the Brookings Institution. That's a concern in rural areas, especially in the South and Appalachia, where poverty rates are some of the highest in the country. Mississippi had the nation's highest poverty rate in 2014 at 21.5 percent, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, with rates of at least 18 percent in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

The Brookings study found that among men born in 1950, the top 10 percent of wage earners live an average of 14 years longer than the bottom 10 percent of earners, much more than the six-year life expectancy difference for men born in 1920, Sabrina Tavernise reports for The New York Times. For women the difference gap increased to 13 years. (NYT graphic; click on it to view a larger version)

"Life expectancy for the bottom 10 percent of wage earners improved by just 3 percent for men born in 1950 compared with those born in 1920," Tavernise writes. "For the top 10 percent, though, it jumped by about 28 percent. (The researchers used a common measure—life expectancy at age 50—and included data from 1984 to 2012.)" The study found that life expectancy for the bottom 10 percent of male wage earners born in 1920 was 72.9, compared to 73.6 for those born in 1950, while among the top 10 percent, life expectancy increased from 79.1 to 87.2.

One big reason, researchers say, is that smoking rates have decreased among more affluent populations, Tavernise writes. Also, public-health researchers say life expectancy among low-income is hurt by less education and higher rates of obesity and prescription drug abuse. (Read more)

Rural areas could tip the balance in Saturday's Democratic caucus in Nevada

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are preparing for Saturday's Nevada caucus by trying to connect with the state's rural areas, Kurtis Lee reports for the Los Angeles Times. Only eight percent of the state's Democrats live in rural areas, but they account for 12 percent of caucus delegates. Rebecca Lambe, a senior strategist to Sen. Harry Reid, the state’s top Democrat, who is neutral in the race, said candidates can't take any part of the state for granted. She told Lee, “In a tight race, the delegates up for grabs in the rural areas will matter." (Map from Nevada Rural and Frontier Health Data Book)

Clinton won the popular vote in Nevada's rural areas in 2008, but lost in delegates to President Obama, "whose support in rural counties gave him the edge," Lee writes. Clinton staffers "went on a 1,200-mile 'listening tour' of rural counties last summer, and Clinton’s team has opened field offices, held meet-and-greets at diners and dispatched top-name supporters including Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who trekked to rural northern Nevada this week. Clinton herself traveled Monday to Elko, a tiny gold-mining community in northeast Nevada with fewer than 5,000 registered Democrats. She addressed, among other things, guns and federal land rights; the U.S. government own 85 percent of Nevada’s land."

"Sanders only recently deployed staff to corners of Nevada—his campaign opened an office in Pahrump last month—but has beefed up its efforts, flying in staffers who worked in Iowa and New Hampshire and dispatching them to rural outposts," Lee writes. "Campaign signs supporting him appear sporadically through town. Lynn Warner, a retired clinical neuropsychologist, traveled from San Diego in mid-January to volunteer for Sanders in Pahrump. She estimates walking more than 10 miles each day along gravel roads, knocking on doors of houses, some of which sit on more than an acre of land." She told Lee, “People need jobs here. They want that gap between rich and poor to close." (Read more)

Rural Walla Walla County, Washington, has reinvented itself as a wine and food mecca

Map from County Maps of Washington

Walla Walla County, Washington, has been reinvented as a wine and food mecca, Mike Seely reports for The New York Times. Walla Walla County, with more than 130 wineries and all manners of restaurants, "can aptly be described as Napa in bluejeans. Thirty years ago, only the denim part of that description would have applied. In the region, an agricultural powerhouse, it hadn’t yet dawned on farmers to grow grapes."

Mike Spring, a former fire chief who owns a brewpub in Dayton, Wash., told Seely, “Back in the ’80s, downtown was dying—truly falling apart. The wine industry has brought Walla Walla back to life.”

Several fine restaurants and "charmingly off-kilter wineries" have made Walla Walla "a destination for gastronomes and oenophiles alike," Seely writes. "But as a local brewer, Court Ruppenthal, puts it, 'People drink wine all day and say, ‘Now what I really need is a beer.’ For that, pulled-pork pizza, hush puppies and an unexpected dollop of top-notch French cuisine, the Touchet Valley towns of Waitsburg and Dayton beckon."

In Waitsburg, "a Rockwellian town of some 1,200 citizens at the eastern edge of Walla Walla County, a beloved Italian restaurant is across the street from a cafe whose hush puppies and upscale-Dixie aesthetic attract "loyalists from an hour in every direction," Seely writes. Local restaurant owner Ross Stevenson told Seely, “I guess we’re pretty lucky. ... These smaller towns are boom and bust. We’ve seen plenty of businesses come and go in Waitsburg since we’ve been here.”

About 10 miles down US 12 "is the Columbia County seat, Dayton (population, 2,500)," Seely writes. "With a main boulevard wide enough to host an Old West gunfight, the municipality’s economic heart stopped in 2005 when the Green Giant cannery moved to Peru. For decades, the company’s cartoonish Hulk-meets-Tarzan icon was carved into a hillside. It has faded considerably now, replaced by the cheese-yielding goatherd of Monteillet Fromagerie, which produces small-batch chèvre and brebis with a Francophile’s flair." (Read more)

Etching program looks to help rural property owners in Calif., Nevada recover stolen equipment

Rural communities in California and parts of Nevada are fighting back against thieves stealing millions of dollars in farm equipment through a program called Owner Applied Number, Julie Johnson reports for The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif. As part of the program equipment is etched with unique numerical-and-letter sequences that are entered into a database used by law enforcement to recover stolen equipment. It's an alternative to relying on serial numbers, which have sometimes disappeared or are too old to be on record. (P-D photo by Kent Porter: Engraving a numeric code on a tool)

In Sonoma County, California, more than $3 million in farm equipment was reported stolen in the past four years, Johnson writes. "The numbers illustrate the financial toll on the county’s rural residents when thieves haul away tons of valuable equipment and even live animals, veteran Community Service Officer Pat Moffitt said. Moffitt ticked off examples from her records from 2015: Copper wire valued at $120,000 taken from a north county vineyard; saddles worth about $47,000 missing from an equestrian center; a $35,000 tractor that was later recovered; and even 10 live goats worth about $5,000 that were hauled away." (Read more)

Conflicts of interest, lack of transparency trouble the California Coastal Commission

In a controversial and unpopular move, the California Coastal Commission last week held a closed-door meeting to fire executive director Charles Lester, Tony Barboza and Dan Weikel report for the Los Angeles Times. While the commission cited leadership issues, Lester's supporters say the commission was driven by a desire to increase coastal development. (Times photo by Allen J. Schaben: Places like Huntington Beach, Calif. could be the site of proposed development projects)

The closed-door meeting wasn't a surprise; the commission's history is steeped in a lack of transparency, columnist Steve Lopez writes for the Times. "Consultants representing developers don't have to register as lobbyists or reveal what they're paid. And critics, including former commissioners, say those consultants are way too cozy with the commissioners, who vote on their projects. For their part, commissioners often do not provide detailed descriptions of their communications with lobbyists and project backers. All of that information should be posted and available to the public."

Lester "knows more about the 40-year-old voter-approved Coastal Act that protects our 1,100-mile shoreline than anyone in the world," Lopez writes in another column. "At times during the meeting, Commissioners Wendy Mitchell and Dayna Bochco gabbed like school kids on the dais, and they cast seventh-grade smirks at press row when colleagues took turns bashing the news media. If California's media deserve a beating, in their diminished state, it's for not keeping a close enough watch on this all-powerful agency and the constant pressure applied by hired guns for billions of dollars' worth of development projects."

On Tuesday state legislators introduced a bill that "would require the hired guns who represent developers to register as lobbyists and play by the rules of full disclosure that apply to every other state agency," Lopez reports in yet another column. He says the basic problem with the commission is that the "commissioners are appointees, but half of them hold elective office, and their fundraisers are populated by lobbyists, developers and other politicians. It's all too cozy and too shady at the same time, and there's little or no cross-checking between local campaign donations and potential conflicts of interest."

State lobbying is on the rise, especially when it comes to drug companies pushing high-cost drugs

Much lobbying has shifted from the federal level to the state level, especially when it comes to laws that make it harder for pharmacists to substitute cheaper generic drugs for high-cost ones, Liz Essley Whyte and Ben Wieder report for the Center for Public Integrity. "The laws in many cases require the pharmacist to take extra steps before dispensing the cheaper drugs, including notifying the doctor, retaining extra records or, in some cases, getting patient consent."

The center's analysis of five years of lobbyist registrations, compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, found that "since 2010, the number of entities with either in-house lobbyists or part-time hired guns working in the states has grown more than 10 percent," Whyte and Wieder write. "That means, on average, every state lawmaker was outnumbered by six companies, trade associations, unions or other groups angling for their attention from 2010 to 2014."

A 1997 study by the University of Iowa found that "not a single entity had lobbyists registered in all 50 states," Whyte and Wieder write. But in 2013, "at least nine companies and interest groups lobbied in every state: AARP, the American Heart Association, AstraZeneca, AT&T, Express Scripts Holding Co., the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Rifle Association of America, Pfizer and PhRMA." (Center for Public Integrity graphic: Growth of state lobbying)

"In general, drugmakers favor laws that allow them to sell drugs widely at the price they set, often asking lawmakers to force insurers or government to pick up the tab," Whyte and Wieder write. "Drug companies ask state lawmakers to make sure Medicaid or other health plans cover their products. They ask for drugs to be distributed widely, such as Mylan Inc. asking states to allow schools to stow EpiPens for any child who has a severe allergic reaction—even without a prescription. Painkiller makers such as Purdue Pharma LP resist efforts to restrict prescriptions, as the opioid epidemic claims lives."

Opponents say these laws make it less likely a pharmacist will substitute a biosimilar—less costly drugs that function in much the same way as more expensive ones—"and more likely to instill doubt in patients about the alternate drugs," Whyte and Wieder write. "That could mean fewer patients get access to cheaper versions of specialty drugs that treat a range of diseases, including cancer, hepatitis C and Crohn’s."(Read more)

Free webcast Friday morning on opioid addiction

Gov. Peter Shumlin

A live webcast on opioid addiction will be held from 11 a.m. to noon EST Friday at The Pew Charitable Trusts building in Washington, D.C. "Confronting America's Opioid and Heroin Addiction Crisis" will be presented by Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, who "made history—and helped change the national conversation on addiction—when he dedicated his entire 2014 State of the State Address to this topic," Pew says. "He'll discuss his latest proposals to build upon the progress Vermont has made—which includes limiting the availability of opioid pills and promoting the use of naltrexone, a drug that blocks the desired effects individuals seek when using opioids."

Heroin and opioids have become increasingly popular in rural areas, which lack preventive services for addiction, says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rural areas are also ill-prepared for hepatitis C outbreaks from intravenous drug use, says CDC.

Allan Coukell, Pew’s senior director for health programs, will introduce Shumlin "and share details about Pew’s prescription drug abuse project, which works to develop and support policies that will help reduce the inappropriate use of prescription drugs while ensuring that patients with legitimate medical needs have access to effective pain management," Pew says. For more information or to register for the webcast click here.

Downturns in oil, gas and farming hit Kansas hard

Screenshot of interactive Wichita Eagle graphic

The downturn in the oil and gas industry in rural Kansas has hurt the economies of the central and western parts of the state, forcing many companies to shut down and lay off workers, Dan Voorhis reports for The Wichita Eagle. "According to the Kansas Department of Revenue, the oil and gas plunge has shaved nearly $1 billion off the $32.3 billion worth of assessed valuation statewide, pushing 40 counties into negative territory and cutting growth in most of the rest."

"It certainly cut growth in the value of taxable property in 2015, trimming what might have been a 5 percent increase for the state, had oil stayed the same, to 1.74 percent," Voorhis writes. Nick Jordan, Kansas Secretary of Revenue, told Voorhis, “It’s significant. If we focus on the sales tax receipts, income tax is going up because of the unemployment rate of 3.9 percent, but the sales tax has struggled since March.” In some counties that has led to budget cuts and tax increases.

Another problem is that the oil and gas boom coincided with a agricultural boom, with farmers enjoying six years of high commodity prices, Voorhis writes. "It was a chance to reinvest in the farm, buy more land and, maybe, take a nice vacation. But that ended a year or two ago with plunging global prices, so even in counties with little oil or gas, there has been a drop." The end result is that many people overspent. Jenae Talbott, executive director of the Russell County Economic Development and Convention and Visitors Bureau, told Voorhis, "There’s nothing to do but hunker down and wait. We don’t know any other way than to live through it."

Journalist's Resource offers tips for college reporters on promoting campus transparency

There are plenty of resources to help college journalists fight for freedom of information on campus, John Wihbey and Denise-Marie Ordway report for Journalist's Resource.  "Most colleges and universities are non-profit organizations and, therefore, must file a Form 990 with the IRS," Wihbey and Ordway write. "These records, which are accessible online, offer financial data and insights into such as things as net assets, fundraising expenses and compensation for top employees and officers."

Also, the federal Clery Act, "stipulates that all higher education institutions receiving federal funding must report and publicly disclose certain kinds of data," Wihbey and Ordway write. "Campus crime is the category that gets the most focus. If you are interested in investigating issues of sexual assault, you should brief yourself on the wider context and research on this area. The Clery Center for Security on Campus is a useful resource on campus crime and the Clery Act more broadly. Another key federal law you should read and understand is FERPA, or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which regulates the types of student information that a government agency can disclose to the public."

"Bear in mind that the laws for public colleges and universities often are quite different than those for private institutions, which have much more of a right to keep reporters out and shield documents and data from the public’s view," Whibey and Ordway caution. "Public schools rely on public funding and, as such, are subject to a variety of federal and state transparency laws, including public records laws. The laws and policies governing public colleges and universities also vary by state. Whatever the situation may be, it would be wise to familiarize yourself with your rights and privileges as they pertain to the higher education institutions you’re covering."

"The College Media Association provides a variety of resources for members of the student media," Wihbey and Ordway write. "The professional organization Investigative Reporters and Editors highlights campus-related issues and furnishes content and tips for student journalists. Another important resource is the national Education Writers Association, which offers tips, tutorials, webinars and seminars on covering a range of higher education topics."

Eating organic food can lower children's vulnerability to pesticides, study says

Eating organic food can lower vulnerabilty to pesticides in Latino children in low-income agricultural regions, says a peer-reviewed study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, Alison F. Takemura reports for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. The study, which consisted of 40 low-income children in Northern California—20 rural children in agricultural areas in Salinas Valley and 20 urban children—"analyzed pesticides and their breakdown products in the children's urine for four days on their normal diet, seven days on an organic one and five more days after reverting to a conventional diet."

Researchers "found that traces of pesticides dropped substantially during the organic phase of the study," declining "up to 49 percent for a class of pesticides called organophosphates," Takemura writes. "But traces of pesticides were higher than in previous studies involving middle-income, suburban children, suggesting that kids from cities and farming communities may be getting exposed via their environments as well as their diets."

Researchers also found a disparity in how different demographic groups are exposed to pesticides, Takemura writes. Researchers said previous studies "have shown that organic food can slash pesticide levels to undetectable amounts in middle-income, largely white kids in suburban neighborhoods. But in the new study of poorer Latino children, levels of the chemicals lingered. The additional exposure could be coming from their environment—for example, drifting from fields nearby or sprayed to fight insect infestations in substandard housing." (Read more)

Maryland, Virginia county fight release of 215 million gallons of coal-ash water into Va. creek

The state of Maryland and a Northern Virginia county are fighting a plan by Dominion Virginia Power to release about 215 million gallons of treated coal-ash water into Quantico Creek, a tributary that connects the states' shared Potomac River. (Tide-forecast map)

Last week the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and the James River Association joined the Potomac Riverkeeper Network in challenging the decision to discharge the water from the company’s coal-burning power plants, Whitney Pipkin reports for The Chesapeake Bay Journal. "The announcements came on the heels of news that even before the Virginia State Water Control Board approved those discharges last month, Dominion had drained nearly 34 million gallons of water last year from one of its impoundments into Quantico Creek."

On Monday "Maryland’s Department of the Environment joined its Department of Natural Resources in an appeal that makes official the concerns staff first raised in an eight-page letter to their counterparts at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in mid-January," Pipkin writes in a separate story. "Maryland formally notified Virginia of its intent to ask the Richmond Circuit Court to review the draining decision."

Antonio Olivo of The Washington Post reports that Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said in an email to the Post: “I am deeply concerned that untreated or improperly treated coal ash could be deposited in the Potomac River. Residents in the Washington region look to leaders in Virginia and Maryland to safeguard their natural resources, and the Potomac is a treasure that must be protected. Any plan to dump waste in the river needs heightened scrutiny and rigorous analysis.”

Dominion spokesman David Botkins dismissed Frosh's claims, responding in a statement: “I’m not sure what there is to appeal. We are cleaning up coal ash ponds and improving the environment, that’s what is important.”

Sunshine Week will celebrate open government and freedom of the press March 13-19

It's a good time to begin preparing for Sunshine Week, an annual event to celebrate open government and freedom of the press. Now in its 11th year, this year's event will be from March 13-19. National Freedom of Information Day is March 16, the birthday of James Madison, father of the First Amendment.

The American Society of News Editors and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press are working with major news organizations, such as The Associated Press, The McClatchy Co. and Tribune News Service to put together a package of enterprise stories, sidebars, an analysis, photos, videos and informational graphics, which will be available on the ASNE, Reporters Committee, AP and Sunshine Week websites.

The Sunshine Week site will also provide other tools, including op-eds, editorial cartoons, Sunshine Week logos and the newly created list of open-government questions that journalists can ask federal candidates. The website also features freedom of information story ideas and past work from Sunshine Week, as well as a list of participants and a calendar of events.

Sunshine Week 2016 is made possible by an endowment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and by generous donations from Bloomberg and the Gridiron Club and Foundation. For more information about Sunshine Week, visit sunshineweek.org. Follow Sunshine Week on Twitter and Facebook, and use the hashtag #SunshineWeek.

Supreme Court order blocking power-plant rules is bad for rural areas, policy analyst argues

The Supreme Court's order blocking the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan while a lower appellate court rules on it "is a short-term gain for the fossil-fuel industry and a long-term loss for rural communities," Tara Ritter of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy argues in the Daily Yonder. She writes:

Tara Ritter

"Rural communities are disproportionately affected by climate change, and as such, will suffer the most while decisive action on climate change is delayed. Rural communities are more likely to have natural resource-based economies than urban communities. Those will become less stable as climate change worsens. In addition, poverty rates are higher and housing stock is older on average in rural communities, which means that many rural residents spend a larger percentage of their income on energy costs. This will be exacerbated as heating and cooling needs increase in the face of more extreme temperatures and weather events. . . .

"It’s often assumed that rural communities oppose action on climate change, but that narrative oversimplifies the diverse range of perspectives held in rural America. Many rural communities, such as the cities of Morris and Grand Rapids in Minnesota, are already focused on building local resilience by addressing climate change. In addition, a group of rural leaders and organizations released a policy document last year outlining priorities for addressing climate change in rural communities. The document emphasizes clean energy and community-based energy projects, as well as energy efficiency initiatives and assistance for rural communities to transition away from extraction-based economies. The Clean Power Plan is an opportunity to fulfill these recommendations, and the Supreme Court’s decision stands in the way of what many rural residents want."

Drop in number of students pursuing education degrees could hurt rural areas' teacher recruitment

Rural areas that are already struggling to recruit teachers could be facing an even bleaker future if more college students don't pursue teaching careers, Tim Lockette reports for The Anniston Star. Peter Hlebowitsh, dean of education at the University of Alabama estimates that enrollment is down 10 to 15 percent in the past three years, numbers that he says are typical across the nation. Alabama is currently short 86 high school teachers and expects a shortage of 93 teachers next year. (Best Places map: Anniston, Ala.)

Money and security are the main reasons fewer students are going into education, Lockette writes. "The money isn’t good, compared to what college graduates could make in other fields. The relative security of teaching doesn’t hold as much appeal in an improving job market. And with years of budget tightness—with few raises and teachers paying more for benefits—the job doesn’t seem as secure as it used to." Another problem is working conditions, such as large classes or a lack of equipment.

Also, an Alabama law that recently went into effect eliminates the rule allowing teachers to retire after 25 years, Lockette writes. Bryant Ginn, who teaches at Ohatchee High School, told Lockette, “In the future, it’s going to be tough. When those young teachers realize they’re going to have to work 40 years for their retirement, they’re going to think twice.”

Thomas Spencer, an analyst for the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, a Birmingham think tank that studied teacher shortages last year, said "Keeping teachers beyond the first few years could be a key to solving the problem long-term," Lockette writes. Spencer told him, “Teachers in their early years go where they can get a job. The most ambitious of them tend to move on to some place with better conditions. There tends to be a churn in the underperforming systems.” (Read more)

Teaching Central Appalachian coal miners how to write computer code could help revitalize region

In Central Appalachia, where communities have been hit hard by the loss of coal jobs, the move to teach former coal miners computer coding could be the start of a trend that could help revitalize the region, Tim Loh reports for Bloomberg News. Rusty Justice, who co-founded a coding business in Pikeville, Ky. (Best Places map), told Loh, “We’ve got a lot of high-skilled hillbillies here. We want to prove we can run a tech business from the hills of Eastern Kentucky.”

In 1996 local producers in Pike County "dug up 35.6 million tons, a state record," Loh writes. "The coal market began to collapse in 2011 as a global glut of the fuel swelled. Prices are down 75 percent since then, and nowhere has that hit harder than in Appalachia. Central Appalachia coal has dropped 70 percent from a record $143.25 in July 2008 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Pike County’s output dropped to 6.9 million tons in 2015, and its mining jobs fell to 1,285, about a third as many as four years earlier."

During coal's downturn, Justice, a fourth-generation Pikeville native, saw his excavation and engineering company lose 70 percent of its customer base, "including big miners like James River Coal Co., Alpha Natural Resources Inc. and Arch Coal Inc. that all filed for bankruptcy protection," Loh writes. That led to the idea to switch to coding, Loh writes. Justice told him, “We didn’t think that was that big of a jump. Daggone, these are high-tech workers that just get dirty.” (Bloomberg graphic)

Loh writes, "Of course, there’s a big difference between Big Sandy Valley and Silicon Valley. For one, Kentucky has the country’s slowest peak Internet connection speeds, according to a survey by Akamai Technologies Inc. And in Appalachia, where coal has long dominated and communities are separated by miles of mountains, few governments ever banded together to attract the likes of Apple and Google. And few people grew up dreaming of working for either."

"That’s slowly changing," Loh writes. The region is seeking ways to create entrepreneurial opportunities. One of those ways is with coding. Last year 10 former coal mine workers spent five months learning to code and mastering languages including HTML, JavaScript and PHP. A U.S. Department of Labor grant "covered the coders’ wages during training and similar funding will cover a share of their salaries through winter... Justice said he expects to achieve profitability in 2016. They’ve already finished nine projects, including the website for Eastern Kentucky’s career center network." Justice told Loh, “The coal industry is dying here. But we could be the grassroots of something truly special.”

How creating trusted sources helped one regional newspaper break a major national story

Screenshot of Express-News home page Feb. 13

Creating trust among readers and sources is still the cornerstone of excellent journalism. It's also the main reason the San Antonio Express-News broke one of the biggest national stories in months when it was the first to report that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died in rural Texas. Even though the story was national, it sets a good example for all journalists that creating trusted sources is a very important part of journalism.

It all started when an Express-News reporter received a tip from a trusted source in the federal government, followed by confirmation from a second source, Benajmin Mullin reports for The Poynter Institute: Express-News Editor Mike Leary "said the Express-News' coverage of Scalia's death shows the rewards that come with cultivating experienced, well-sourced journalists. In the days of dwindling ranks in the newspaper industry, there's no replacement for having reporters on the ground whom people trust. . . . We had local sources. I'm not surprised we broke the story."

App to detect quakes can give seconds or minutes of warning if enough phones are app-enabled

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley on Friday unveiled a smartphone application that detects earthquakes when they start and sends vital information to scientists that can be used to warn residents in the affected areas, Rosanna Xia and Rong-Gong Lin II report for the Los Angeles Times. "They hope that by turning mobile phones into vast data collection points, they can quickly glean information about the quakes and warn those farther away from the epicenter that shaking is on the way."

The free app, MyShake, "uses smartphone sensors to detect movement caused by an earthquake," then reporters write. "Users who download the app will be sending data to scientists when an earthquake as small as a magnitude 5 hits. By harvesting information from hundreds of phones closest to the earthquake, scientists will be able to test a computer system that could, in the future, dispatch early warnings that shaking is seconds or minutes away to people farther away from the earthquake’s origin."

Richard Allen, director of Berkeley's seismological lab, said if "at least 300 phones [are] sending warnings in the same 60-mile-by-60-mile zone, simulation tests show that’s good enough to tell the system that the shaking was an earthquake," reports the Times. "The warnings will eventually give trains time to slow down, decreasing a risk of derailment before shaking arrives, sound an alert in hospitals to warn surgeons to halt surgery, and have elevators open their doors at the nearest floor, preventing people from becoming trapped."

Allen told the Times, “This is an app that provides information, education, motivation—to the people who’ve downloaded it—to get ready for earthquakes. Those same people are contributing to our further understanding of earthquakes, because they’re collecting data that will help us better understand the earthquake process.”

Obama proclamation creates three national monuments on 1.8 million acres in Sonoran Desert

Times map: boundaries proposed by Sen. Feinstein

"President Obama designated three new national monuments in the California desert Thursday, expanding federal protection to 1.8 million acres of landscapes that have retained their natural beauty despite decades of heavy mining, cattle ranching and off-roading," Louis Sahagun reports for the Los Angeles Times.

Obama acted after Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was unable to get the designations made by legislation. "Much of the land was purchased more than a decade ago by private citizens and the Wildlands Conservancy, then donated to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in anticipation of its eventually receiving the protection of national monument status," Sahagun notes.

The Mojave Trails National Monument "protects wildlife corridors linking Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National Preserve," Sahagun writes. "Sand to Snow National Monument, about 45 miles east of Riverside, includes about 154,000 acres of federal land between Joshua Tree National Park and the San Bernardino National Forest in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The area includes 24 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, an estimated 1,700 petroglyphs and Big Morongo Canyon, a bird-watching destination along a perennial stream designated a federal Area of Critical Environmental Concern in 1982."

The Castle Mountains National Monument "surrounds, but does not include, an open-pit mine at the southern end of the Castle Mountains owned by NewCastle Gold Ltd., of Canada, which has a permit allowing it to excavate nearly 10 million tons of ore through 2025. Mining at the site was suspended in 2001 because of low gold prices," Sahagun reports.

HIV outbreak in rural Ind., driven by intravenous drug use, puts other rural areas on notice

Last year's outbreak of HIV in rural Indiana—blamed on a rise in intravenous drug use—has put other rural areas on notice to look for warning signs to prevent a similar epidemic in their necks of the woods. The number of HIV cases in southeastern Indiana, mostly around Austin in Scott County, stands at 188, according to state data. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released in December said that rural areas lack prevention services for opiate addiction and HIV infections.

The Indiana epidemic has put Virginia officials on notice, Becca Pizmoht reports for the Madison County Eagle. While HIV rates remain stable statewide, "concern grows that rural counties are seeing a disproportionate number of new cases. Several factors are cited as possible causes, including lack of available education and testing and increased intravenous drug use in rural populations." Madison County (Family Search map), population of 13,000, has not had any reported HIV diagnoses since 2011, but adjoining Greene County (18,000) has had six and Orange County (34,000) eight.

Ann Rhoades, director of HIV Surveillance in Virginia, told Pizmoht, “After the Indiana outbreak we have been watching rural areas more closely. Urban areas have a lot of available testing and there are needle exchange and education programs in place. We need to have education and testing available to our rural populations because there is a stigma attached to HIV sometimes people in small communities aren’t willing to get tested.” (Read more)

Grant will fund crude-oil derailment training for 18,000 rural and remote emergency responders

A rise in train derailments carrying crude oil and other flammable materials through rural areas has caused concern that emergency responders in small communities are not trained to deal with such events. That's about to change. This year about 18,000 first responders in rural and remote areas will receive "specialized training at local fire stations for handling emergencies involving flammable liquids moved by rail," Mike Cook, executive director of Hazardous Materials Compliance and Training at the Transportation Technology Center, reports for the Daily Yonder. (American Association of Railroads photo: Firefighters training for an oil spill)

Training programs are part of a $2.4 million grant from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that will send rail-safety experts from the Security and Emergency Response Training Center in Pueblo, Colo., around the country "instructing rural volunteer emergency responders about flammable liquids emergency response and rail incidents involving crude oil," Cook writes. The grant "will also fund the creation of a new web-based training program about flammable liquids moved by rail." (Read more)

Owner of coal mine where underground fire has burned for a year asks Ill. to approve expansion

The owner of a coal mine in Hillsboro, Ill. (Best Places map), "where an underground fire has smoldered for nearly a year, is asking state regulators to approve an expansion that some local residents fear could jeopardize public health and cause environmental damage," reports Alan Sher Zagier of The Associated Press. Deer Run Mine, located about 65 miles northeast of St. Louis, ceased production in January "after what it calls a 'combustion event' that elevated carbon monoxide levels below ground and kept out workers for most of the past 11 months."

Despite a lack of production Foresight Energy has asked "the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to approve a 7,731-acre expansion into areas unaffected by the fire," Zagier reports. "While such underground fires aren’t uncommon in mines, expansion opponents argue that the company’s inability to get it under control should give pause to the request." The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration says the fire poses no immediate threat.

"Deer Run, which opened in 2011, operates as a longwall mine, a mechanized process in which enormous shearers slice coal from earthen panels that can stretch for several miles," Zagier writes. "The technique allows for greater coal extraction with fewer workers than traditional 'room and pillar' mining while also causing the surface land above to sink by several feet." (Read more)

Nevada tourism campaign trying to entice urban residents to rural areas by suggesting they not go

Nevada tourism officials are getting creative to try to lure urban dwellers to visit rural attractions, Richard Velotta reports for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Only 6 percent of Nevada's urban residents visit rural sites, compared to 25 to 50 percent in most other states, said state tourism-commission Director Claudia Vecchio. (Review-Journal photo: Lake Mead)

The Discover Your Nevada program, which "has no advertising budget and most of the publicity is developed by the office's in-house public relations department," was created four years ago "to publicize rural destinations and events to urban audiences," Velotta writes. One new campaign idea is to attempt to use reverse psychology to get urban residents interested in visiting rural areas. "The marketing committee of the Nevada Commission on Tourism on Thursday said they could deliver a list of 15 reasons not to go to Lake Mead or Lake Tahoe, a strategy that could draw considerable attention but ultimately result in a higher level of interest." Commissioner Don Newman told Velotta, "It's a little dangerous at first glance."

The program in the past "has incorporated online destination-popularity votes, geocache and scavenger hunts and road trips taken by Gov. Brian Sandoval and former Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki," Velotta writes. Hutchison, who chairs the tourism commission, told Velotta, "I think there are a lot of people in Nevada who don't even know about these places." (Read more)

Sexual assault victims in Minnesota's under-served areas often receive less care, study finds

Sexual assault victims in Minnesota's rural and underserved populations have limited resources and often receive less care than similar victims in urban areas, says a report by the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MCASA). The study consisted of 139 respondents to a survey sent to health professionals who treat sexual assault victims. Only 42 percent of respondents said they feel there is an appropriate medical forensic response to victims from underserved populations in their area, 21 percent responded sometimes and 17 percent said they were unsure.

"Lack of a culturally responsive and appropriate approach creates additional barriers, injustices, and potential re-traumatization for victims from underserved populations," states the report. The main problem is not enough trained medical professionals in the area, said respondents. The current atmosphere also creates barriers, such as a lack of non-English speaking health professionals. Another problem in underserved areas is a lack of resources, which forces health professionals to send patients to other facilities. Overall, 52 percent of respondents estimated that between 90 to 100 percent of patients told to go to a different facility for their exam do not got, mainly because of transportation limits or higher costs. When patients are told they can be treated at a facility they often face long wait times.

While treatment is good in urban areas, "in most of rural Minnesota, she said, medical professionals lack training to administer physical sexual assault tests and help victims obtain a variety of types of help," Don Davis reports for the West Central Tribune in Willmar, Minn. "Kasey Baker of Willmar-based Safe Avenues said some rural hospitals without personnel trained in sexual assault cases may send victims to nearby hospitals, with large ambulance bills being sent to the victims." Baker told Davis, “The reality is that the current way in which exams are conducted in Minnesota can and have retraumatized victims.”

Drug-overdose deaths spike in rural Colorado

Drug overdose rates in Colorado have hit record levels, increasing 68 percent from 2002-2014, with numbers especially high in rural Southern agricultural counties, says a report by the Colorado Health Institute. In 2002, the state had 9.7 drug overdose deaths per 100,000 people. Deaths nearly doubled in 2014, up to 16.3 per every 100,000 residents, above the national average of 14.7 drug-related deaths per every 100,000 people. (Colorado Health Institute graphic: Drug overdose deaths in 2014)

Twelve counties had more than 20 overdose deaths per 100,000 people. Seven are located in rural areas, all in the southern half of the state. Baca County, near the Kansas border, had the biggest increase, going from 4.1 to more than 20 deaths per 100,000 in 2014. (Drug overdose deaths in 2002)

An influx of heroin to the state's poorest and least populated counties is one of the reasons for the increase, along with a rise in abuse of prescription drugs and methamphetamine. In 2012-13 Colorado ranked 12th nationally in non-medical use of opioid painkillers, with state statistics showing that 25 percent of state residents said they had used pain medications not prescribed by their doctor and 29 percent saying they had used pain medications prescribed for someone else.

Overall, 63 of Colorado's 64 counties experienced an increase in drug overdose deaths from 2002 to 2014, David Olinger reports for The Denver Post. Tamara Keeney, a policy analyst at the Colorado Health Institute, told Olinger, "We do know that heroin and prescription drugs are what's driving the increase across the board. Cocaine has actually decreased as a cause. It was surprising to us to see that it wasn't just the urban counties."

Bent County Coroner Dave Roberts, who said many of the deaths in his county are the result of prescription painkillers, said the average age of death is early 30s, Olinger writes. Roberts told him, "When I first started, there were hardly any overdoses. Now it's really prevalent... It's amazing the amount of meth that's in small counties."

Remaining occupiers at Oregon refuge surrender

The armed standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in rural Harney County, Oregon came to a peaceful end today, Les Zaitz reports for The Oregonian: Cincinnati-area resident "David Fry was the last to surrender, finally emerging after an extended phone dialogue with supporters who tried for over an hour after the others left to get him to walk out. . . . The holdouts all face arrest on a federal charge of conspiracy for their roles in the armed occupation."

"FBI agents in armored vehicles had moved in Wednesday night on the four still at the refuge, hemming them into their camp and insisting they put down their guns and surrender," Zaitz reports. "Also Wednesday night, the FBI arrested Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy at Portland International Airport. He faces federal charges related to the 2014 standoff at his ranch."

Zaitz writes, "The surreal scene played out over social media . . . through an open phone line being streamed to YouTube. At one point, an estimated 60,000 people listened as the occupiers displayed anger and panic, prayed with those on the phone and yelled at the FBI agents surrounding them. They're the remainders of a group of anti-government militants who took over the wildlife refuge headquarters Jan. 2. The four have been on their own since Jan. 28—two days after the occupation leaders were arrested on a highway north of Burns and protest spokesman Robert 'LaVoy' Finicum was shot and killed."

Crowdfunding story leads Maine paper to examine ethical issues and develop an accountability policy

How should news media approach crowdfunding stories? What's the difference between a newsworthy story and shameless promotion? Those are some of the questions at the heart of a debate concerning a story by Jackie Farwell of the Bangor Daily News about a local woman who used crowdfunding to search for a kidney donor and raise money for expenses, Joseph Burns reports for the Association of Health Care Journalists. The newspaper has used the experience to begin developing a policy on crowdfunding. Farwell writes:

Jackie Farwell

"When Christine Royles painted a plea for a kidney donor on the rear window of her car, she had no idea of the ethical dilemma she was about to provoke. As we covered the hospital’s response to the crowdsourcing effort behind her surgery, I worked with Anthony Ronzio, the news and audience director at the BDN, to sort through the medical crowdfunding editorial policy questions inherent in medical crowdfunding. In so doing, we wrestled internally with the role of media coverage in Royles’ ultimately successful search for a donor.

"Many outlets reported on her plight, publicity that no doubt directed many dollars to the fundraising campaign for the man who agreed to donate his kidney to her. The outpouring of generosity threatened to derail the transplant, in part because the hospital was leery of federal regulations that prohibit individuals from profiting from the donation of an organ. Royles’ case, while unprecedented in Maine, raised questions about medical crowdfunding that we knew would persist with the popularity of websites such as GoFundMe and Indiegogo.

"We re-examined our coverage from a couple of vantage points: What did our audience need to know about this trend, and how should we cover individual crowdfunding campaigns in the future? We also set out to develop an editorial policy aimed at medical crowdfunding. Online fundraising for a honeymoon or a new car is one thing, but lives are often at stake when people turn to the Internet to pay for their health care. As we presented in the story, online crowdfunding raises ethical questions that set it apart from a spaghetti supper at the high school gym.

"News outlets’ ability to convert readers into potential fundraisers has become more overt with the ease of online donation. We know our coverage can amplify a campaign’s reach, so we wanted guidelines for when and how to cover them.While we’re still in the process of developing a policy, here are the main points of discussion:

• Individual campaigns must be unique to warrant coverage, whether in the amount of money raised, the public response, the personal story, or other factors. Royles’ case was unique in that it presented the hospital with unprecedented ethical and legal questions that delayed her transplant. 
• We must confirm the facts of a campaign if we cover it. That could mean asking for medical records or interviews with doctors, a potentially challenging step when patients are in vulnerable and time-sensitive situations. 
• In some stories, the campaign itself is the news hook. In others, the person’s health struggle is the focus, and the campaign is a secondary element. Are we obligated to do all or nothing, either agreeing to mention these campaigns or write no story at all? 
• Do we link to the campaign? It seems like an obvious step and readers may want a link if they’re moved to donate or learn more. But should we consider omitting links to avoid the amplifying effect? We don’t want to set ourselves up to pick winners and losers. 

"We don’t have all the answers to these questions, but we’ll keep seeking them. We welcome any thoughts you’d like to share."

In rural Mardi Gras tradition, adults in white Cajun and black communities chase kids with switches

While Mardi Gras revelers flooded New Orleans, an obscure tradition continued in some rural isolated white Cajun and black communities that consists of masked adults chasing children with switches, reports The New York Times' Campbell Robertson, who is based in New Orleans. The children, who are prodded to taunt the adults, are eventually caught, whipped and forced to kneel and say prayers to repent for their sins. (NYT photo by William Widmer: A chase through the swamp in Choupic)

"Each of these small Catholic communities lies off the main arteries; each consists of a cluster of houses strung along a road passing roughly from a church to a sugar cane field," Robertson writes. "And though there is almost no communication among the communities, the Mardi Gras practices in them are the same in their essentials. Young men dressed in costumes and masks—calling themselves the Mardi Gras—roll down the main drag brandishing switches of peach or willow (the whip of choice in Gheens), bamboo (Promised Land), or broken fishing poles and golf club shafts (Choupic). Their targets are the children and young teenagers, who taunt and backtalk from the roadside but know that when the Mardi Gras jump out and the chase is on, no adult is a friend and any parent will sell out a son or daughter hiding in a back seat or under a bed."

"They almost always go easy, particularly on the younger children and the ones they do not recognize," Robertson write.s "A few light taps is all. This is the day and age we live in: A video could show up on YouTube, the elders warn the young maskers, or some parent could raise a stink and the whole tradition, dating back long past living memory, could be shut down." Mark Breaux, 57, of Gheens, told Robertson, “People have come here now that is not used to it and that don’t want their kids getting whipped. Our parents, they never minded it because they know what it’s about.”

"The whippings seem to get tougher and the chases get better as the memories go back farther," Robertson writes. "Way back when, the older men and women say, the Mardi Gras rode in on horses and carried bullwhips. The children really had to know their prayers back then and were not allowed to get away with saying their ABCs as they do now. In Promised Land you knew never to mess around with a certain Mardi Gras named Pokey, as he was capable of anything. That was when they would really hurt you."

The origin of the tradition is up for debate, Robertson writes. Barry Ancelet, a professor at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, said "similar practices can be found in the ancient pagan springtime festivals, in medieval European rites and in African-Creole rituals," but for most locals "they all just knew that where they lived, the roots went deep, back to parents of grandparents." (Read more)

Major media often overlook plight of rural schools

The struggles of rural schools are often overlooked by journalists who focus on urban schools, David Gutierrez writes for Harvard Political Review. "This disparity in media coverage is understandable — the crumbling infrastructure of cities, the poverty and segregation faced by inner-city students, and the presence of a school-to-prison pipeline are all serious problems that demand reforms. But in a media market where large newspapers and television stations now compete with international media outlets, rural educational issues can be forgotten in the commotion. Many rural school districts face concerns that stem from the current demographic and economic state of rural areas, the lack of technological infrastructure, and the difficulty of hiring and retaining teachers."

Rural schools sometimes face high levels of poverty, funding disparities, transportation burdens, teacher shortages and inferior technology, Gutierrez writes. "The current state of rural education is bleak, but with a renewed scrutiny on the American education system, it is time to address all underperforming schools, regardless of their location. While the problems rural schools face are connected with larger problems of economic development, there are some things that can be done to help them. These solutions will require a concerted effort to effect substantial change and to ensure that every child, urban or rural, receives an equal opportunity to succeed."

Supreme Court ruling won't stop the decline of coal in Central Appalachia, industry experts say

Despite coal backers celebrating the Supreme Court's order blocking the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, industry experts say it won't stop the ongoing decline of coal in Central Appalachia, Ken Ward reports for the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

"James Van Nostrand, director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at the West Virginia University College of Law, noted that other factors are playing major roles in the coal downturn that has cost the industry a significant chunk of its market share and thousands of West Virginia miners their jobs," Ward writes. "Among those factors: plentiful and low-priced natural gas resources, decreasing costs of renewable energy sources like solar and wind; and, in Central Appalachia, cost challenges that make the region’s coal less competitive." Van Nostrand told Ward, “I don’t think the stay will reverse what is happening, but it may slow down the de-carbonizing of the country’s electric supply until the legal issues are resolved." (West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy graphic)

Morgantown environmental consultant Evan Hansen, a candidate for the state House, said the Clean Power Plan "is only one of many factors affecting West Virginia’s mining industry," Ward reports. Hansen told him, “The most important is simple economics—whether coal mined here can compete in the marketplace against coal mined in other parts of the country, natural gas and solar. It’s also a matter of geology, because so many of West Virginia’s thickest and easiest-to-access coal seams have been mined already.” That has helped make Central Appalachian coal the most expensive to mine.

Ten years ago, industry consultant Alan Stagg told the "Covering Coal" seminar of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues (publisher of The Rural Blog) that depletion of the resource in southern West Virginia had created a situation he'd never seen: production falling while prices and demand rose. After two years of increased production, the downward trend returned, and accelerated.

Sanders did better in rural N.H. than Clinton; rural vote helped Kasich get clear 2nd place in GOP race

Democratic winner Bernie Sanders and Republican runner-up John Kasich did better in the seven rural counties of New Hampshire than in the three metropolitan counties, the Daily Yonder reports in its analysis of the first presidential primary.

"The Ohio governor conducted over 100 town hall meetings in the state and maybe that paid off in rural communities," Tim Marema and Bill Bishop report. "Kasich won 13.5 percent of the vote in metropolitan New Hampshire, but notched about 17 percent in rural counties."

The Yonder was among those noting that Hillary Clinton's 39 percent "share of the statewide vote was comparable to the last time she ran in the New Hampshire primary – in 2008 against Barack Obama and John Edwards. . . . This year, the same percentage of the vote handed her a 29-point loss. Turnout was down 10 percent for Democrats from 2008, while Republicans saw about a 20 percent increase in voters over 2008."

High court blocks power-plant rules while legal battle goes on; rural electric co-ops cheer

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan "until a lower court has resolved the legal case against it," Curtis Tate reports for McClatchy Newspapers. "Under the plan, states would have to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by a third by 2030. But states that rely heavily on coal to produce electricity, including Kentucky and West Virginia, had argued that the plan was unconstitutional." West Virginia and Kentucky are second and third to Wyoming in coal production and get the vast majority of their electricity from coal.

The court's order means that the states that sued to stop the rules, which are aimed at greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, won't have to comply while the legal battle is being fought in a lower appellate court. The ruling was good news for rural electric co-ops, which also rely heavily on coal. Chris Perry, president and CEO of the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, said in a press release, "Without this stay, co-ops would have been forced to take expensive and irreversible actions to comply with the rule."

(Climate Desk graphic: States suing over the rules, ranked by percent of their electricity that comes from coal, as of Oct. 23, 2015)

Production of Central Appalachian coal—produced mainly in West Virginia and Kentucky—was 40 percent below average between 2010 and 2014, and a decline in coal jobs has led West Virginia to have the negative distinction of being the only state in the U.S. where more than half of adults are out of work. Coal was also an issue in the November election in Kentucky, where Republicans tied Democrats to Obama's energy policies, Tate writes. Since Obama took office in 2008, "Republicans have shut Democrats out of the governor’s mansion, both U.S. Senate seats and five of the state’s six House seats."

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey told The Associated Press, "We are thrilled that the Supreme Court realized the rule’s immediate impact and froze its implementation, protecting workers and saving countless dollars as our fight against its legality continues." Wyoming’s Gov. Matt Mead also applauded the decision, AP reports: “This is a big win for Wyoming and the nation. It puts on hold this very bad policy based on a deeply flawed process while the legal issues are being addressed. I couldn’t be happier.”

For a legal analysis from Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler, in The Washington Post, click here.

Resource offers journalists tips for questioning federal candidates about open government

The American Society of News Editors and OpenTheGovernment.org have created a government transparency resource to assist journalists in interviewing candidates running for federal jobs. The groups "have drafted open-government-related questions" in the hope that "they will be used broadly, by editorial boards, reporters covering the 2016 campaigns and interested members of the public who have an opportunity to speak with candidates. ... Transparency is vital for public accountability, and it needs to be a part of the greater conversation on democracy and open government."

Question topics center on federal open-government issues such as: Transparent policing and accountable law enforcement; the Freedom of Information Act; communications surveillance transparency; secrecy surrounding the drone-strikes programs; electronic records management; whistleblowers; open government collaborations between government and non-governmental organizations; and campaign finance.

“It’s important for the news media to remind federal officials and candidates that we care about open government," said Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.