Federal prosecutors launch criminal investigation against manufacturers and distributors of opioid painkillers

"Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into whether pharmaceutical companies intentionally allowed opioid painkillers to flood communities, employing laws normally used to go after drug dealers, according to people familiar with the matter," Corinne Ramey reports for The Wall Street Journal. "Prosecutors are examining whether the companies violated the federal Controlled Substances Act, a statute that federal prosecutors have begun using against opioid makers and distributors this year." Under that law, companies must monitor commonly abused drugs and report suspicious orders.

The U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York has sent grand-jury subpoenas to at least six companies: drugmakers Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Mallinckrodt PLC, Johnson & Johnson and Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc.; and distributors AmerisourceBergen Corp. and McKesson Corp. All the companies have denied responsibility and said they followed all laws concerning manufacture and distribution of prescription opioids, Ramey reports.

But according to recently released Drug Enforcement Administration databases, billions of pills were distributed across the country between 2006 and 2012, with disproportionate numbers sent to rural areas struggling with opioid addiction. More than 2,600 communities, counties, and Native American tribes have alleged in federal lawsuits that the companies didn't report suspicious orders, in order to maximize profits. Most of the suits were consolidated into a few large cases, and most companies have settled out of court.

If the probe results in charges, the case could become the biggest criminal prosecution to date of drug companies for the opioid epidemic. "Executives and companies can face civil charges under the Controlled Substances Act for not reporting signs, like suspicious orders, that could indicate drugs are being used for nonmedical purposes," Ramey reports. "Criminal charges require prosecutors to prove an effort to willfully and intentionally avoid such requirements, legal experts said."

Humility key to peaceful holiday talk, policy advocate writes

As we head into Thanksgiving, Richard Nelson of Kentucky's Commonwealth Policy Center offers suggestions for peaceful conversations among "family members of differing political persuasions." The center says it advocates "values of life, marriage and fiscal responsibility," so Nelson has a religious focus, but also some thoughtful and practical advice:

"Insulating ourselves and our thoughts on important, even controversial subjects, may avoid tough conversations, but hardly garners understanding that brings us closer to our families and loved ones. . . . So how do we rise above our unhealthy tribalism that's reduced us to the sum of our political opinions?

"Start with recognizing that the crazy Republican or discontented Democrat sitting next to you is first and foremost a person endowed with dignity by the Creator. They're a person made in God's image. Believing this tempers your opinions with great humility, which drives away arrogance in a heartbeat.

"Realize that your opinions aren't everything. If you're around long enough you'll find that they change over time. Gasp! You might even be wrong! Cast away unhealthy suspicions and build your conversation upon goodwill and charity toward opponents, even if they're sitting right next to you. Especially if they're sitting right next to you.

"Adopt an attitude of gratefulness. It drives away discontent. We may be creatures with different experiences, persuasions, and markedly differing political opinions but we are creatures made to live in community. We need each other and we need to figure out how to dialogue with one another civilly and respectfully.

"This means we ought to listen carefully. Not simply thinking about the logical flaws or how to dismantle Uncle Bob's political theories. But try to understand their life experiences and worldview. Doing these things may help us to recapture the lost art of conversation."

One week out from Giving Tuesday, here are some reminders of why supporting rural journalism matters

We'll get straight to the point: the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues needs your support. We work hard all year to help rural journalists all over the United States, but as a non-profit organization we rely on donations. With Giving Tuesday a week away, we ask you to begin considering how much you would like to donate to IRJCI so we can continue providing vital services to rural journalists. It's not just us asking, though:

Bill Ketter, senior vice president for news at Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., writes for us: "One of the great dangers to our democratic system is the erosion of local news sources to connect the people’s interests and concerns with the community’s welfare. The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues combats this peril through its advocacy for news outlets in America’s small towns and cities. I say that from experience of working with the Institute and what it has meant to my company’s group of community newspapers."

Sheila Hagar, education reporter and columnist for the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, writes: “We all know being a journalist in a rural area is a challenge, and not just being unable to shop for groceries incognito. Resources are limited, beats are measured by many square miles. The trainings that helps us stay current and connected are often out of reach geographically and — increasingly — financially. While there are plenty of places to see global news, The Rural Blog aggregates stories from areas like the one I report in. Not only have I gained numerous story ideas and found resources I could use, but our newspaper has benefited from reading about how similarly-sized news organizations are doing things. To have a publication that pulls in rural news every day makes me feel supported.”

Thanks for those kind words. If you value our work, please donate here.

Court bars meat industry from blocking California law that mandates better living conditions for food animals

"A federal judge in Los Angeles refused to stop California from enforcing a voter-approved measure requiring farmers to provide more space for animals being raised for food," Jonathan Stempel reports for Reuters. "U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder ruled on Friday that the North American Meat Institute, whose members include processors such as Tyson Foods and retailers including Walmart, did not deserve a preliminary injunction against enforcing the measure known as Proposition 12."

Voters approved Prop. 12 last November. The law mandates minimum amounts of living space for calves raised for veal, breeding pigs and egg-laying hens. It also bars the sale of raw veal, pork, or eggs from animals raised in spaces that don't meet that minimum requirement.

"The Meat Institute had argued that enforcement would hurt producers and consumers by increasing food costs, and violated the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause by requiring out-of-state producers to comply or face the sales ban," Stempel reports. But the judge said there was no evidence the law substantially burdened interstate commerce, even if it meant less profit for producers. A Meat Institute spokesperson said the group may appeal the decision.

Acting chief of BLM says it will defer to local law officers

William Perry Pendley, acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, wrote in a recent Las Vegas Review-Journal op-ed that the agency's law enforcement personnel will defer to local law enforcement officials, Jennifer Yachnin reports for Energy & Environment News.

The op-ed is all the more relevant after President Trump recently expanded a pilot program that sends national park rangers to the U.S.-Mexico border to help stop drug trafficking and illegal immigration. The move sparked concerns that visiting park rangers might step on the toes of local law enforcement. Pendley's op-ed appears to be an attempt to allay such fears.

"The bureau is reaching out to local sheriffs to ensure that rangers recognize that, although local law enforcement bears primary responsibility for enforcing state and federal law, Rangers are there to assist — lending their expertise to better local communities," Pendley wrote. "Rangers, therefore, partner with local law enforcement, while recognizing that counties are a governmental arm of sovereign states. Maintaining that deference is essential to making BLM a truly productive and valued partner to Western communities."

Interior Department spokesperson Melissa Brown said Pendley's remarks don't signal a change in policy, but rather as a reminder of current policy. She also said the Interior is considering an overhaul of BLM's law enforcement, which now includes about 200 uniformed officers and 70 special agents who patrol 245 million acres of public lands, Yachnin reports. The scope of BLM rangers' authority has been controversial in Congress; several lawmakers have sought to overhaul or eliminate it, Yachnin reports.

Tune in today for webinar on USDA farm income forecast

Tune in at 1 p.m. ET today for a free webinar discussing the latest Farm Income Forecast, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service will release tomorrow. The forecast will be published here.

The USDA releases estimates each year in February, August and November, covering a wide range of data and predictions concerning the farming sector's economic health. ERS economist Carrie Litkowski will discuss updated data and forecasts on farm income and wealth, cash receipts, other sources of income such as government payments and insurance, production expenditures, off-farm income, and breakouts by major commodities and regions. Register here.

Feral hogs attack and kill rural Texas woman

States have become increasingly aggressive in the battle to cull feral hogs. Here’s a grim reminder why: A pack of feral hogs attacked and killed a rural Texas woman on her way to work this week, Kim Bellware reports for The Washington Post.

The victim, 59-year-old Christine Marie Rollings, was a caregiver for a senior couple in Anahuac, a town of 2,200 on the north end of Trinity Bay 50 miles east of Houston. She was scheduled to arrive at her clients' home at 6 a.m. but never showed up. One of the clients soon discovered Rollings' body between her car and the front door. The official cause of death was blood loss, Bellware reports. "In my 35 years, I will tell you it's one of the worst things I've ever seen," Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said at a press conference Monday.

Though feral hog populations have been booming in the U.S., deaths are rare; Hawthorne said there have been fewer than six reported nationwide, Bellware reports.

After its only grocery closes, Fla. town opens its own store

Mayor Sean Lynch in Baldwin Market. (Washington Post photo by Antonia Farzan)

Baldwin had a problem. In 2018, the community's only grocery store shut down, leaving the Florida town of about 1,600 in the same county as Jacksonville with few options for fresh, local groceries. The nearest grocery was 10 miles away, and the only local options were fast food from a nearby truck stop or canned goods from the Dollar General. Since the town has a significant population of seniors and the poor, many of whom don't drive or must share a car, leaving town for food isn't usually feasible, Antonia Farzan reports for The Washington Post.

Baldwin, in Duval County (Wikipedia)

So Sean Lynch, mayor of the staunchly Republican town, proposed opening a grocery store operated by the local government. "Abandoned by mainstream supermarkets whose business models don’t have room for low profit margins, both urban and rural communities nationwide have turned to resident-owned co-ops or nonprofits to fill the gap," Farzan reports. "But Baldwin is trying something different. At the Baldwin Market, which opened its doors on Sept. 20, all of the employees are on the municipal payroll, from the butcher to the cashiers. Workers from the town’s maintenance department take breaks from cutting grass to help unload deliveries, and residents flag down the mayor when they want to request a specific type of milk."

Lynch said the city isn't trying to make a profit, but if the market is profitable, the money will go back into improving the city. A few other towns have done the same thing, with good results. "Notably, these experiments in communal ownership are taking place in deep-red parts of the country where the word 'socialism' is anathema," Farzan reports. And a collectively owned, government-run operation like Baldwin Market is socialist by definition. "But in many rural, conservative communities struggling to hang on to their remaining residents, ideological arguments about the role of government tend to be cast aside as grocery stores shutter because of population decline and competition from superstores."

Many small towns are struggling to attract new residents, and not having a grocery store can be a deal-breaker. So "food access becomes almost like a utility that you have to have for the town to exist," said David Procter, director of the Rural Grocery Initiative at Kansas State University. Lynch thinks along the same lines. "We take the water out of the ground and we pump it to your house and charge you," Lynch told Farzan. "So what’s the difference with a grocery store?"

Trump orders national-park rangers to the Mexican border

President Trump is sending rangers from some of the country's largest national parks "to the U.S.-Mexico border to help stop drug traffickers and illegal immigration," the USA Today Network reports. "The orders have come as Congress has refused to fund Trump’s border wall, the signature promise of his presidential campaign."

Parks tapped for rangers include the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Rocky Mountain National Park, Zion National Park and Shenandoah National Park and others. "Most rangers have been detailed to one of two border sites: Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona and Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas," USA Today reports. The Great Smoky Mountains park "was asked to send two park rangers for two-week details at the border, but only sent one," according to a park spokeswoman.

The program began as a pilot in May 2018, "then expanded in October amid record numbers of border crossings," USA Today reports. "Park officials say they’ve been told they should continue sending rangers to the border through September 2020."

Just in time for Thanksgiving, op-ed explores the wedge politics has driven through the middle of many families

Teri Carter

Thanksgiving can be a political minefield for family members who hold vastly different opinions, but this op-ed from a rural Kentucky writer offers a note of hope about love overcoming politics.

Teri Carter, a self-described liberal feminist, hadn't spoken to her Trump-loving father in Missouri since about a month after Trump's inauguration. "He posted a Ku Klux Klan meme on his Facebook page. I demanded he take it down. He refused. I insisted. He unfriended me. Then he stopped calling. I stopped visiting. And that was that," Carter writes for The Washington Post.

But Carter drove to rural southeast Missouri earlier this month because her stepmother has late-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The visit forced Carter and her father to talk, and they were able to find common ground on many topics.

"How happy I am to be with my dad after those three lost years. And lost over what? Yet I know I am not alone," Carter writes. "How many loved ones have you stopped calling, blocked, unfollowed or unfriended? How many friends and family members do you simply avoid these days, choosing to skip your niece’s wedding or make other plans for the holidays? How many of you, like me, just stopped going home?"

Gannett-GateHouse merger spawns analysis and comment

A lot of ink has been spilled over the newly approved merger of GateHouse Media into the new Gannett Co. Inc. Here's a roundup of some interesting articles, op-eds, editorials, and general think pieces on the topic.

The company's estimates of annual cost savings from the merger have increased from about $200 million in July to upwards of $400 billion. Ken Doctor at Harvard University's NiemanLab talks about what those cutbacks could look like in local newsrooms. Read more here.

The merger could deepen America's local news crisis, writes Clara Hendrickson for the Brookings Institution. Read more here.

Marc Tracy of The New York Times gives the nuts and bolts of the merger and a decent overview of the major questions surrounding it. Read more here.

Don Seiffert of the Boston Business Journal ominously notes that more than 80 percent of the 200 dailies in the company are losing circulation faster than the national average, and 10% are declining at twice that rate or faster. Those papers could be first in line for cuts, he speculates. Read more here.

The merger is a good thing because it's a cost-effective way to keep local news alive, writes the editorial board for The Record in Stockton, California. Read more here.

Publisher James Bennett of The Daily Herald in Columbia, Tennessee, near Gannett-dominated Nashville, tries to reassure readers that the paper's focus will remain local, even though the former GateHouse paper is now owned by Gannett. He says readers will benefit from having access to Gannett content. Read more here.

Report for America helps Associated Press fund statehouse reporters in 14 states, for 18 months starting in June

News coverage of state governments, which has been declining for two decades, will get a boost in 14 states next year and in 2021 with funding to The Associated Press from Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project.

Applications for the jobs will open Dec. 2 and the journalists will begin reporting in June. They will be in Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina and Utah. "A data journalist will support their efforts and work to bring policy journalism to all 50 states," AP reports.

“An investment in AP at the statehouse is an investment in the health of an entire state news ecosystem,” Noreen Gillespie, AP's deputy managing editor for U.S. news, said in the story. “We are pleased to be working with Report for America to ensure citizens have better and more access to information about their government at work, from budgets and policy issues to holding elected officials accountable.”

The journalists will also report on state and federal elections; issues related to voter access, vote suppression and vote security; and "break news on the impact of new administrations and changes of power at the state level," AP reports. Most states elect governors and legislators next year.

“One of the most important crises facing our democracy is the alarming shortage of local news coverage about state government, which determines much of the public policy affecting the lives of Americans,” Report for America President Steven Waldman said in the story. Charles Sennott, CEO of The GroundTruth Project, added: “Although Congress gets far more attention, state government has at least as much impact and garners far fewer headlines.”

The new reporters' work will be available to non-AP news organizations, such as nonprofit news outlets, public radio stations and independent online sites, and AP will distribute many stories produced by other Report for America journalists who are already covering statehouses.

Some rural counties can't get real local news via satellite TV

For about 870,000 American households, most of them rural, the local television news is anything but. Because they can't pick up broadcast signals from a TV station, they must rely on the network affiliate stations from their satellite TV providers, and sometimes those news stations are hundreds of miles away and have no interest in them, Grant Schulte reports for The Associated Press.

Dianne Johnson lives in western Nebraska, where the news stories on her satellite TV all come from Denver, over 200 miles away. That frustrates Johnson, who wants to know more about local and state politics, sports, and weather. "Johnson’s plight is part of a congressional dispute pitting local broadcasters against satellite television providers, who are frequently the only option for viewers in America’s most remote corners," Schulte reports.

There are two causes, AP notes: "The first is a federal law that lets satellite providers import distant broadcast signals to those 'neglected markets' at a steep discount, even though the local news subscribers see may not be relevant. The law was initially passed in 1988 to help small, fledgling satellite TV providers compete with cable companies that were viewed as monopolies at the time. It’s set to expire at the year’s end, but satellite providers are lobbying Congress to extend it for another five years."

If the law expires, satellite providers would no longer send distant news to rural viewers but would probably have to pay more to add local broadcast stations to their offerings. Local broadcasters could extend the reach of their signals to reach more rural viewers, but that would require federal approval, and the Federal Communications Commission has essentially not allowed broadcast stations to do so for nearly a decade, Schulte reports.

"The second challenge for rural viewers is a federal law that sets the boundaries for the nation’s media markets," Schulte reports. Media markets are based on a map drawn by Nielsen Media Research. Local leaders who feel their county is in the wrong media market can appeal to the FCC, but it's a complicated and time-consuming process. WYMT-TV in Hazard, Ky., has been fighting its battle for more than a decade.

Report identifies 'hubs’ that effectively strengthen rural communities, gives tips and examples for others

With the needs of rural America increasingly in the news since the 2016 election, many philanthropists, nonprofits, government leaders, and investors have gotten more interested in how they can help address systemic issues in rural areas. A new report from The Aspen Institute's Community Strategies Group aims to give such people practical information and data about rural America along with examples of intermediaries they've dubbed Rural Development Hubs: place-based organizations that are already working to improve rural prosperity and well-being by harnessing both local and outside resources.

"Hubs focus on all the critical ingredients in a region’s system that either advance or impede prosperity — the integrated range of social, economic, health and environmental conditions needed for people and places to thrive," the report says. Here's what sets hubs apart from other organizations; hubs:

• have a regional mindset and pursue regional action.
• help bring together people in the region in a way that local government often can't.
• are rooted in the region, know the region, and are widely and deeply trusted in the region.
• take a long-term view, understanding that many goals may take decades to achieve.
• address multiple causes of challenges.
• look beyond funding and other limitations to look broadly at their regional responsibilities. 
• collaborate and network with other systems, governments, organizations and people.
• create structures, products and tools that foster collaboration.
• translate, span and integrate action between local and national actors.
• innovate and change to become what they need to be to get the job done.
• take and tolerate risk.
• hold themselves accountable to the whole community.

The report identified 43 hubs around the country and details what many are doing to create change in their communities, along with a crash-course in rural policy history.

Words matter when writing about addiction; wrong words increase stigma, impeding recovery; speakers offer advice

Videos of each presentation are available here.

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

ASHLAND, Ky. -- The words used to describe drug addiction and those suffering from it can either perpetuate the stigma that is attached to the disease or can help people move beyond it, and journalists have a responsibility to stop using stigmatizing language.

Bishop Nash and Lyn O'Connell speaking in Ashland Nov. 15 at
"Covering Substance Abuse and Recovery: A Workshop for Journalists"

That was the main message of the last two speakers at the Nov. 15 workshop in Ashland, Ky., "Covering Substance Abuse and Recovery: A Workshop for Journalists," sponsored by the University of Kentucky's Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

"Nobody has the power to change language like us," said Bishop Nash, most recently the health reporter at the Herald-Dispatch in nearby Huntington, W.Va., a city that has been called the epicenter of the opioid epidemic. “That's just how it is and I feel it in my heart to do it for my people."

Nash said he, like many other reporters, has had to learn to write differently about addiction, but once he understood the science of the disease and why it was important to not use stigmatizing language, it has been an easy switch.

"It really requires a change of heart," he said. "When you get your heart wrapped around this issue, you really don't have to think about it."

Nash gave credit to Lyn O'Connell, the associate director of community services in the division of addiction sciences in family medicine at Marshall Health in Huntington, for helping him and others in the area understand why the words journalists use to cover addiction matters.

O'Connell, who spoke first, explained that after making regular phone calls to the Herald-Dispatch, including ones to Nash, and asking them to print less stigmatizing headlines, she realized the journalists and their editors just didn't know any better, so she compiled a set of guidelines on how to cover addiction and set out to teach them. O"Connell shared some of those guidelines at the day-long workshop.

Like other speakers at the conference, O’Connell said stigma is what keeps many people with substance use disorders from seeking treatment. She added that it also keeps lawmakers from providing adequate funding for programs to support them.

"So if they see these damaging headlines, it's only going to perpetuate these diseases in our communities," she said. She encouraged journalists to use non-stigmatizing language, and offered four suggestions.

First, she said it's important to use "people-first language." For example, write "an individual with a substance-use disorder" instead of the more stigmatizing term "addict." "Remember that we are talking about a human and we should put the human first in a sentence," she said.

O'Connell also noted the importance of focusing on the medical nature of a substance use disorder. She pointed out that we don't call people with cancer "those cancer people" and asked why would we de-humanize a person with a substance-use disorder, which is a chronic disease, and call them an addict.

She also encouraged using language that promotes recovery. For example, instead of saying "an individual with a substance-use disorder," when appropriate say "an individual in recovery."

It's also important to avoid perpetuating negative stereotypes and biases through the use of slang and idioms, she said. In other words, don't use words like junkie, addict, user, abuser, crack-head.

She also encouraged journalists to move away from writing or saying "substance abuse," which she said has criminal under-tones. Instead, she said be medically accurate and use the term substance use disorder, which is what it is. "I think this is one of the hardest adjustments," she said.

She offered several more suggestions, including making sure you only mention the details of a person's addiction if it is relevant; to never say an infant is born addicted, but to instead say it was born experiencing exposure or withdrawal; and to not ever use the words "clean or dirty" to describe a drug screening, but to instead say it was positive or negative for the substance. She also said to make sure the images and photographs used in a story are accurate and are images that promote treatment and recovery.

She concluded by noting that addiction is a complex, chronic-relapsing disease that is the result of many different factors, and that most individuals in treatment have a history of trauma.

She said, "When we don't consider the entire person in that story, we're missing out on a lot of who that person is, and the back history."

Nash said he initially thought all of these changes would "clog” his writing and that readers would roll their eyes and say, "Oh, the PC police are out." But since, he said he has evolved to writing substance use disorder on first reference because that establishes it as a disease, and then refers to it as an addiction because that is the word his readers understand.

"This isn't about being politically correct," he said. "This is about being right in the science with it."

A person in the audience noted the struggles editors face in trying to fit so many words into a headline and said alternative, smaller words are needed that are also appropriate to use.

"That just speaks to the importance that you should not just be teaching this to reporters," Nash said. "You've got to teach this to editors, you've got to teach this to copy desk people, and the hardest thing is that you've got to teach this to a lot of people who are set in their ways."

Nash recognized that a reporters job is to report, and to not sugarcoat the news, but said there is no reason that the words they use should add to the stigma.

He said, "I believe that state and local journalists in particular have a moral imperative for the greater public good in the communities they serve."

Study: mobile apps could better measure rural road damage, help decide where repair money goes

Rural roads are a vital resource, but many states have decreased funding for rural road upkeep, so it’s important to find cost-effective, reliable ways to keep tabs on their condition. A project from the Illinois state government, spearheaded by college researchers from universities in the state, aims to change that by creating a mobile app to measure road conditions, McCall Macomber reports for the University of Illinois’ Grainger College of Engineering.

Researchers found that most county and town officials were only able to assess road damage by the 'windshield method': looking out the windshield when driving. "This highly subjective method leads to overspending on road repairs. To explore more cost-effective measures and reliable assessments, investigators put two techniques to the test — manual and automatic assessment methods," Macomber reports. "The manual methods involved evaluating both the new Seal-coated Road Condition Index and the Unsurfaced-road Condition Index, which measure seal-coated road surfaces and surfaces on gravel and dirt roads, respectively."

But the manual methods were time-consuming, expensive, and often meant closing lanes to traffic. "The researchers then shifted their focus to automated methods, where they used three mobile apps to measure the roughness of rural roads. They tested several variables to determine the effectiveness of the apps, including road material, vehicle type, speed and even the cellphone mount," Macomber reports. "Ultimately, researchers found that apps were an effective, cost-saving real-time technique to determine road roughness conditions."

The research team is working on creating an app to report on rural road conditions. "This project is a first stepping-stone to automate low-volume or rural road condition data. The use of cellphones to collect pavement distress data is currently state of the art, and the state of Illinois is at the forefront," said researcher Mohammad Imran Hossain, a Bradley University professor.

After three years of decline, cost of Thanksgiving meal about the same as last year, says new Farm Bureau survey

In the past year, the price of the average Thanksgiving meal for 10 has remained virtually unchanged since last year; the cost went up one penny to $48.91 this year, shaking out to less than $5 per person. That’s according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 34th annual survey. This year’s leveling off of Thanksgiving prices comes after three years of decline in cost since 2015.

The study assesses the prices for the most common dishes on the Thanksgiving table. And though the overall cost of the meal remained steady, there was notable fluctuation in individual items. The turkey, for example, cost about $1.30 per pound, 4 percent less than last year and the lowest price since 2010. Other items measured include stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and coffee with milk, Morning Ag Clips reports. Cubed bread stuffing and canned pumpkin pie mix also declined slightly from last year.

"The Thanksgiving price survey opens the door to a deeper dialogue about how food is produced and how prices remain so stable despite volatility in the farm economy this year and severe weather hampering planting and harvest," AFBF Chief Economist John Newton said. "Americans continue to enjoy the most affordable food supply in the world, but most don’t realize only 8 cents of every dollar consumers spend on food goes to farmers."

Most Americans were surprised to learn that farmers get so little of the share from food prices, according to a new AFBF survey, and three-quarters of respondents said they were more interested in learning more about how their food is produced. According to survey results, 88% of respondents said they trust farmers, Morning Ag Clips reports.

Book offers practical tips to help small towns thrive

A new book, Total Town Makeover, highlights examples of small towns that are thriving and offers ideas for how other towns can also nurture growing local economies and vibrant communities.

Author Andrew McCrea is no stranger to small-town life. A fifth-generation rancher and farmer in northwestern Missouri, he’s also the host of award-winning radio show “The American Countryside.” In his book, McCrea offers practical tips for improvement that range from broad, policy-based notions to smaller, everyday suggestions, Sara Schafer reports for AgWeb:

• Does your town have an endowment or other sources of funding to provide seed money for projects or matching funds for grants? Just as a person needs a savings account, endowments serve much the same purpose for a community.
• Do you have a group leading the way, or are separate groups pulling in different directions? Try to form a coordinating group or clearly define what each individual group hopes to accomplish.
• Does the community have short- and long-term goals? Have they been written down and shared? People want to have an idea of the vision before they buy in.
• Are you using newspapers and social media to communicate? Provide progress updates. Show pictures. Build momentum. Social media allows you to connect with people who might not live nearby but have a connection to the town and will support your efforts.
• Improve the town’s culture by making a commitment to smile more and compliment and praise others. It might be a specific person or group that lead the way in building a positive and proactive culture.

It’s important for small towns to thrive, McCrea told Schafer. “There’s more than hope residing in rural America . . . There are qualities in these areas that can’t be experienced anywhere else. Qualities worth preserving not for the sake of nostalgia but for the sake of a better future for all.”

Quick hits: Colorado town tries to attract new teachers; how big-box retailers can revitalize health care

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

A small Colorado town is trying innovative ways to attract new teachers, CBS News reports. Watch the video here.

How big-box retailers can revitalize health care. Read more here.

A Federal Communications Commission report says rural-urban broadband gap is narrowing, but data should be taken with a grain of salt, since it's self-submitted by internet providers. Read more here.

The gap in rural-urban pediatric mortality rates is widening, according to a Health Affairs report. Read more here.

In-depth report describes civic impact of decline of local news media with case studies, including one with rural flavor

Greg Barnes, a former reporter for the Fayetteville Observer,
still sends the paper news tips. (Photo from PEN America report)

A new report "paints a grim picture of the state of local news in every region of the country," Julie Bosman summarizes for The New York Times. "The prelude is familiar to journalists: As print advertising revenue has plummeted, thousands of newspapers have been forced to cut costs, reduce their staffs or otherwise close."

The report is from PEN America, a nonprofit focusing on freedom of expression for writers of all stripes. Titled "Losing the News: The Decimation of Local Journalism and the Search for Solution," it draws on Penny Abernathy's ongoing national research at the University of North Carolina and uses several case studies to make its points, including one of a rural county and a larger, adjoining county in the Tar Heel State.

"For many Americans—especially people of color and residents of poor communities or remote rural areas—inadequate local news coverage has been the norm for decades," the report notes. Now those shortcomings have spread: "At a time when political polarization is increasing and fraudulent news is spreading, a shared fact-based discourse on the issues that most directly affect us is more essential and more elusive than ever."

The rural-oriented case study is of Robeson and Cumberland counties in North Carolina. In 2015, Sanderson Farms decided to put a chicken-processing plant in Robeson, population 20,000, rather than Cumberland, pop. 320,000, due to public outcry spurred by robust coverage in the Fayetteville Observer and friendlier coverage by The Robesonian, circulation 5,000: "Like so many local outlets, it has changed ownership several times in recent years and its newsroom has been subjected to significant cuts; today, it’s owned by Champion Media" and has three and a half news reporters.

The report says Robesonian Editor Donnie Douglas "is able to stack the opinion page with criticism of the county board, which he says is composed of 'crooks—and I don’t use that word lightly.' But he has to pass on more ambitious stories. Even if he’s intrigued, he says, he’ll often think, 'That story is probably too big for us.' . . . Scott Bigelow, a longtime Robesonian reporter and editor who now works there part-time, attributes the newspaper’s general dearth of agricultural reporting to the fact that no one has covered that beat full-time for years."

But things are also worse at the Observer, which was North Carolina's largest independently owned paper until it was bought by GateHouse Media in 2016. Former reporter Greg Barnes "says that toward the end of his three decades there, his job had essentially become filling holes for the rapidly diminishing staff instead of doing the sprawling investigations that had long been his trademark," the report says. "Those who care about the future of Fayetteville and Cumberland County say they worry about what happens when a respected, independent publication no longer has the strength to push back against government or conduct comprehensive investigations. John Malzone, a prominent Fayetteville developer, laments that the Observer is a shell of its former self."

Fiona Morgan, a news consultant based in North Carolina, told PEN America, “Many community newspapers have never done the kind of accountability reporting associated with bigger newspapers. Not all local papers see it as their role to question authority in that way. You’ve always had news deserts even in places where there are outposts. Some local newspapers have been failing to provide aggressive accountability coverage for a long time, especially in rural communities. Where there’s no competition, there’s no pressure to do better.”

Democratic debate recap: Buttegieg wades into corn-vs.-oil feud, Warren wants public service jobs for federal lands

Last night 10 presidential hopefuls took the stage in Atlanta for a debate hosted by The Washington Post and MSNBC. Here are a few rural themes the candidates discussed:

• Mayor Pete Buttegieg of South Bend, Indiana, criticized the trade war with China, saying "We shouldn't have to pay farmers to take the edge off of a trade war that shouldn't have been started in the first place." Farmers' bailout money is insufficient, he said, adding that hardship waivers for oil refiners are hurting the ethanol industry. He spoke in favor of breaking up large agribusiness monopolies, and said farming should be a key way of fighting climate change.
• Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii promised to end the cash bail system and enact prison and sentencing reforms.
• Former Vice President Joe Biden questioned competitor Tom Steyer's bona fides as an environmentalist and criticized his past involvement with the coal industry.
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts advocated increased public-service opportunities: "I want to bring in 10,000 people who want to be able to serve in our federal lands to be able to help rebuild our national forests and national parks as a way to express both their public service and their commitment to fighting back against climate change."
• Warren also criticized the federal government for not building more affordable housing. She has a plan for 3.2 million new affordable housing units, she said.

Read the complete transcript here.

Crop-insurance deadline delayed as harvest problems and farmers' struggles continue; land prices go negative

As U.S. farmers conclude a difficult crop year, the outlook remains troubling. The downturn in agriculture echoes the one that led to the 1980s farm crisis, Farm Credit Administration Chairman Glen Smith told the House Agriculture Committee on Tuesday. The FCA regulates farm lenders.

Smith said the farm-lending system is "safe and sound" but officials are "very concerned and closely monitoring some weakening in credit quality." At a subcommittee meeting, he also compared the current economic climate to that of the early '80s, "citing economic trends like falling farm income, rising debt-to-asset ratios and concerns about the value of farmland," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture. "Farmland values remain largely stable across the country. But that could change, Smith warned in his written remarks to the committee, if larger amounts of farmland go up for sale — like if farm bankruptcy rates continue ticking upward." Smith also noted the role of trade wars in agricultural instability in the late '70s and early '80s.

Meanwhile, abnormally wet weather continues to slow harvests, making it likely that some crops won't be harvested this year at all. "Instead, a good deal of corn in Northern states will likely have to wait until the spring of 2020 to be harvested, while soybeans left over winter might not be harvested at all," Ray Grabanski reports for Successful Farming. "That is going to lead to harvest losses much greater than factored so far into USDA numbers" estimating production.

Within the next two weeks, the corn harvest will be about 76 percent complete and soybeans 91% complete. It's not likely to go much higher, Grabanski writes: "Most of the corn not harvested never made maturity, and therefore is still very wet (25% to 35% moisture) and it is not economical to harvest now (and no propane is available to dry it)." And very wet soil, or snow, will block soybean harvests. But, Grabanski notes, China is buying more soybeans, so commodity prices could go up quickly if the trade war ends.

Almost three-quarters of the rural bankers surveyed for Creighton University's Rural Mainstreet Index reported negative economic impacts from the trade war. The RMI is a monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas of a 10-state region where agriculture and energy are essential to the economy: Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

The overall index has been barely above growth-neutral for three of the past four months, buoyed by higher grain prices and trade bailout payments, writes Ernie Goss, the Creighton economist who compiles the report. However, prices for land continued to slide. "The confidence index, which reflects bank CEO expectations for the economy six months out, slumped to 36.5 from September’s 42.9, and continues to indicate a very negative economic outlook among bankers," Goss reports. This is because of the trade war with China and uncertainty about when or if the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement, will pass.

One banker complained to Goss that it was hard to make predictions because this year's planting and harvesting data isn't known -- or, if known by the Agriculture Department, isn't being made public.

Because of the delayed harvest, USDA is granting most farmers a second extension on crop insurance premium due dates, Dan Looker reports for Successful Farming. Normally, payments on spring-planted crops are due Sept. 30 and begin to accrue interest Oct. 1. USDA announced in August that it would defer interest until after Nov. 30; now it says farmers have until Jan. 31 to make interest-free payments on crops planted last spring. But if their payments are even a day late after Jan. 31, they'll be charged the retroactive interest that would have accrued since the original due date of Oct. 1.

On National Rural Health Day, a call to adopt a broader perspective on the diversity and complexity of rural America

Today is National Rural Health Day, and while many articles might cover familiar topics like the opioid crisis or maternal health, "We want to challenge conventional wisdom and prompt fresh thinking about rural America, the drivers of health, and the role of community and economic development in both. From what we are learning, this broader lens is central to realizing health equity and a better rural futures," Katharine Ferguson and Katrina Badger write for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Rural America is far more diverse and complex than the stereotypes suggest, as shown by two projects, they write. The first is the American Communities Project's "A New Portrait of Rural America", which focuses on the geographic, demographic and socioeconomic diversity of rural America. The second is the foundation's Life in Rural America polls, with data on the complex economic and health issues in rural America. The polls and accompanying report were produced in partnership with Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health and NPR.

Click here for more information about National Rural Health Day and activities observing it.

Students: Leverage rurality for college admission with 'your take in your place and how your place ... created your take'

Tara Kaprowy

Rural high school graduates aiming to go to college might feel insecure about their small-town backgrounds, but it can be a huge bonus in writing an application essay, writes an essay coach living in rural Kentucky.

Colleges and universities want more diverse student populations, including rural students, Tara Kaprowy writes for The Sentinel-Echo, a thrice-weekly newspaper in London, Ky. She offers prospective college students some practical tips on how to nail the application essay with an honest, vibrant treatment of where they come from.

"Not only will you get to write about something that you know, your rural background may not be obvious in any other part of your application," Kaprowy writes. "That means you’ll get to showcase another essential side of yourself, which is exactly what a personal statement is for."

And rural doesn't have to mean living on a farm, she writes. "You don’t have to have a dad who’s a farmer to write about your rural life. You don’t need a tractor, a horse or a Meemaw who cooks the best fried green tomatoes and lets them dry on newspaper. What you’re after is your take in your place. And how your place has created your take."

Report gives state-level data about rural students, schools

More than 9.3 million students attended a rural school last year, but many rural schools have fewer resources and get less attention than their suburban and urban counterparts, according to the newest edition of Why Rural Matters, a report released every two years by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Rural School and Community Trust. The report contains state-level data about the nation's rural students during the 2016-2017 school year. Some key findings in the report:

• Rural-urban education gaps persist despite continued talk from politicians and some occasional bold promises.
• Nearly one in seven students nationwide attended a rural school in 2016-17 (rural is defined using the three main rurality measures employed by the Census Bureau).
• More American students attend rural schools than in the nation's 85 largest school districts combined.
• Nearly one in six rural students lives below the poverty line. One in seven qualifies for special education. One in nine has changed residence within the past year.
• Most rural students attend school in a state where rural students make up less than 25 percent of public school enrollment. More than a quarter of rural students live in states where rural students constitute less than 15 percemt of overall enrollment.
• The median enrollment for rural school districts is 494 students. In some states, the average is far lower: in Montana, North Dakota and Vermont, more than 90 percent of rural districts have fewer than 494 students. 
• Rural students were much less likely than the national average to pass Advanced Placement courses.
• Rural high school students were more likely than the national average to take dual enrollment courses for college credit.
• Though many states provide rural school districts with a disproportionately large share of funding, 12 states provided disproportionately less funding: Nebraska, Vermont, Connecticut, Iowa, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Michigan, Massachusetts, California, Ohio, Minnesota and New Jersey.

How a tiny Montana town became a major Amazon hub

Kristal Graham in the Selltec prep center in Roundup, Montana. (Photo for The Verge by Josh Dzieza)

Roundup, Montana, has one traffic light and fewer than 2,000 residents. It's the last place you'd imagine as home to a major shipping hub. But every day in Roundup, thousands of packages from major retailers like Walmart and Target, are unboxed, repackaged, and sent out to Amazon customers and shipping hubs. The town is "home to a growing industry of prep centers, businesses that specialize in packing goods to meet the demanding requirements of Amazon’s highly automated warehouses," John Dzieza reports for The Verge.

It started in 2015 when rancher Kristal Graham began buying goods from other retailers and selling them for a profit on Amazon Marketplace. "This sort of arbitrage is common and has helped Amazon both expand its catalog and sap its competitors. It’s hard for companies like Nike to refuse to sell on Amazon or for competitors like Target to lure customers away with steep discounts when someone like Kristal can just buy their wares and resell them at a markup," Dzieza reports. "Amazon has made buying stuff so frictionless and habitual, delivery so fast — and for Prime members, free — that many shoppers don’t bother checking prices anywhere else."

Roundup, Montana (Wikipedia map)

But Amazon only accepts products if they're packaged a certain way, so resellers must cover up old barcodes and prices and add new ones, or bubble-wrap glass, for instance. "As Kristal’s business grew, she needed help with all this unboxing and re-boxing, so she started looking for a prep center. There were about 15 at the time, she says, mostly in New Hampshire, Oregon, and Delaware, which have no sales tax," Dzieza reports. "That way, sellers can enter the address of their prep center when they buy from Target’s website and pad their margins by a couple percent. Montana has no sales tax either, Kristal mused, and there wasn’t a single center in the online directory. Sensing an opportunity, she decided to give prepping a try. She chose a name — Selltec — and put it up on the directory, too."

Business went so well for Selltec that others in Roundup decided to open up their own prep and ship
businesses. "There are now nine women in the preppers’ group chat, soliciting advice and swapping tips on how to best package goods for Amazon. Several more are scheduled to apprentice. Between Selltec and the splinter group, every day Roundup receives 3,000 to 4,000 Amazon-bound packages — about double the number of people who actually live there," Dzieza reports. "The preppers are one part of a vast, informal, and mostly hidden workforce that stocks Amazon’s shelves. The majority of goods sold on the site come from third-party sellers, many of whom got their start going to brick-and-mortar stores looking for products to buy and resell."

There are now more than two million third-party sellers on Amazon competing against each other on price and customer ratings. With profit margins so thin, resellers sometimes go to extreme lengths to compete, including using software that scrapes content from other retail sites to find potentially profitable products, Dzieza reports.

"The women in Roundup are mostly bemused by their role in this system. They did not expect when they came to Roundup to be a way station on a highway of thousands of consumer goods. Jobs here of any sort are hard to come by, much less ones that give them the flexibility to go herd cattle, or care for ailing family, or work from an off-the-grid house miles from town," Dzieza reports. "Unlike many people who have found a niche feeding Amazon’s viciously competitive marketplace, the prep center women are welcoming to newcomers. Amazon sellers will engage in elaborate sabotage to undercut their rivals in selling $5 socks, but the preppers have as many customers as they can handle anyway, so they’re happy to pass on inquiries to whoever’s new."

How brands and marketing play into the political divide

WSJ chart with data from Simmons National Consumer
Study, 2004-2018; click on the image to enlarge it.

The old saying "vote with your wallet" has taken on a deeper meaning in recent years, as brands
increasingly signal political stances they hope will play well with their target audiences. Deliberate stances, as well as the random vagaries of retail, have led to some brands being supported more by Republicans and some by Democrats.

An example: Democrats are more likely to wear Levi's jeans and Republicans are more likely to wear Wranglers. "There is no simple explanation behind those consumer moves. Some of it is due to social and political stances companies are taking, such as Levi’s embrace of gun control. Some is tied to larger geographic shifts in the political parties themselves, as rural counties become more Republican and urban areas lean more Democratic. Wrangler is popular in the cowboy counties of the West and Midwest while San Francisco-based Levi’s resonates more with city dwellers," Suzanne Kapner and Dante Chinni report for The Wall Street Journal. "Together those factors are combining to create a new, more partisan American consumer culture, one where the red/blue divisions that have come to define national politics have drifted into the world of shopping malls and online stores."

Since the 2016 election, companies have begun to weigh in more deliberately on partisan issues like immigration, gun control, and gay rights. Richard Edelman, chief executive at public relations firm Edelman, told Kapner and Chinni: "Consumers are not just voting in elections, they are voting at the stores by choosing brands aligned with their values."

Younger consumers expect brands to take a stand on controversial issues, Procter & Gamble Co. CEO David Taylor told Kapner and Chinni. P&G brand Gillette embraced that expectation with ads questioning toxic masculinity, including a recent one in which a transgender man learned to shave from his father—with a Gillette razor, of course.

Calif. governor blocks new fracking projects pending review

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that he would not approve any new hydraulic fracturing projects in the state until an independent panel of scientists reviews the permits. "Newsom also imposed a moratorium on new permits for steam-injected oil drilling, another extraction method opposed by environmentalists that was linked to a massive petroleum spill in Kern County over the summer," Phil Willon reports for the Los Angeles Times.

Newsom said extractive industries need scrutiny as the state decreases its reliance on fossil fuels in favor of renewable sources. "This transition cannot happen overnight; it must advance in a deliberate way to protect people, our environment, and our economy," Newsom said in a statement.

In addition to the fracking halt, Newsom plans to consider adopting buffer zones around oil wells in or near residential areas, hospitals, and other places that could exposed to toxic fumes, Willon reports.

"The actions come just weeks after Newsom signed a bill into law revising the primary mission of a state agency that regulates the oil industry, now called the Geologic Energy Management Division, to include protecting public health and safety and environmental quality," Willon reports. "Citing similar safety concerns, Newsom also called Monday for the California Public Utilities Commission to expedite planning for the permanent closure of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility in Porter Ranch. Thousands of families in the northwest San Fernando Valley were forced to evacuate starting in 2015 because of a broken well at the facility that led to the largest known release of methane gas in U.S. history. Residents reported suffering from nausea, headaches and nosebleeds, among other ailments."

Anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers seek to fill rural maternity care gap

As more and more rural hospitals close or shutter their obstetric wards, rural women often find themselves with few choices for local maternity care. Faith-based crisis pregnancy centers are increasingly presenting themselves as a source for medical care and counseling, Eliza Griswold reports for The New Yorker. Though CPCs often provide practical advice on breastfeeding and government aid, they often use misleading tactics to steer women away from abortion.

CPCs first rose to prominence in the late 1960s as states considered legalizing abortion. CPC owners were provided with pamphlets and other materials, many featuring gory images of aborted fetuses, meant to dissuade women from choosing abortion. "CPCs employed various deceptive techniques to attract women, often advertising themselves as abortion providers. Centers were sometimes established next to abortion clinics and were designed to resemble them," Griswold reports.

After a wave of lawsuits and a 1991 congressional investigation that condemned their tactics, anti-abortion organizations Heartbeat International and Care Net standardized the training and materials for CPCs and presented them as places that offered women medical advice and support. The federal government awarded CPCs millions to teach students abstinence-only sex ed programs in the early 2000's, though such programs have not proven very successful. "In the past decade, CPCs, which are at the forefront of the grassroots anti-abortion movement, have identified a new sense of mission and authority as rural health-care providers have struggled with a lack of funding," Griswold reports.

However, CPCs still often use deceptive tactics to persuade women not to abort. NARAL Pro-Choice America did an undercover investigation last year of 45 CPCs in California and found that CPC employees frequently presented misleading or false information about abortion, claiming that abortion was linked to breast cancer, infertility and miscarriage, for example. However, most women don't go to a CPC for advice about abortion. "These days, as few as four percent of the women who visit CPCs are pregnant and undecided about whether to have an abortion. Most come for social services, including the pregnancy verification required to sign up for maternal and infant Medicaid," Griswold reports.

Local news site finds people who are willing to pay, not just visit, want accountability journalism and 'Civics 101 content'

One of the biggest questions in the news business right now is how to bring in more revenue to pay for journalism. Digital subscriptions enforced by paywalls have become common at larger papers, but less so at smaller ones and online local-news sites. But they can work there, too, if the online Shawnee Mission Post in Kansas is any indication, Christine Schmidt reports for Harvard University's Nieman Lab.

The Post, in the Kansas City exurb of Prairie Village, has three full-time employees: husband and wife Jay Senter and Julia Westhoff, and reporter Leah Wankum; a fourth full-timer will join in January. It has been in business for nine years and has had a paywall for two. "Within three months it "had hit the milestone of 1,000 subscribers at $5.95 per month — the goal Senter had set for its first year," Schmidt reports.

Senter told Schmidt, “We started to look at what was converting people who just visited the page to people who wanted to pay us. The accountability journalism, the Civics 101 content we put out there — that was the kind of stuff that seemed to get people over the hump and giving us money every month. … Things that were on the fires-and-car-accident side of things would get a lot of page views, but didn’t seem to have lasting impact on the way that people live their lives around here.”

Schmidt reports, "More civic-info coverage replaced restaurant closures and car crashes, and the Post has now grown to 2,650 fully paying subscribers. That’s an annual run rate of nearly $190,000. The Post hasn’t tweaked its subscription price much since introducing it — though the first month is now 99 cents — and a 430-respondent subscriber satisfaction survey in January showed that a broad majority is happy with the value that the subscription provided."

Westhoff said many small publishers don't understand the value of their work to the community and don't push locals to acknowledge that. "For us, [introducing the paywall] was at the breaking point of 'We’re going to do this or we’re going to be done'," she told Schmidt. "We are really grateful that it did work out. For us, after having doing the site for seven years, that needed to happen."

Now the publishers "plan to trim their emphasis on advertising next year," Schmidt writes. Because subscription revenue has proven so reliable, the paper will cut the number of display ads by 20 percent next year. "The prices for the remaining ad slots will rise, but the user experience (which will be the same for subscribers and non-subscribers) should improve."

The plan is sensible, she opines: "Business models are different for different markets (and not all local models work in all local markets), but if The New York Times is seeing its digital advertising dip, advertising may not be the boat that a smaller outlet wants to tie itself to."

South Dakota anti-meth ad campaign widely mocked, but governor says it's doing its job by getting people's attention

Part of the ad campaign

South Dakota is getting a lot of attention for a new ad campaign to raise awareness of the state's methamphetamine problem—likely not in the way state officials wanted. The campaign has been widely mocked for making it sound as if meth use is a good thing, Michael Brice-Saddler reports for The Washington Post.

Gov. Kristi L. Noem unveiled the "Meth. We're On It." awareness initiative on Monday, which includes a TV ad, billboards, posters, and a website; an accompanying news release highlighted the fact that meth use among South Dakota teens is double the national average, Liza Kaczke reports for the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls.

"But Bill Pearce, assistant dean at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, said any sincere messaging by the governor was lost by an ad campaign that embodies 'poor strategy and poor execution,'" Brice-Saddler reports. "I can’t imagine this is what they intended to do; any good marketer would look at this and say: 'Yeah, let’s not do that.' . . . I’m sure South Dakota residents don’t like being laughed at. That’s what’s happening right now."

The state's Department of Social Services has paid Minneapolis ad agency Broadhead Co. nearly $450,000 for the campaign. The contract allows for up to $1.4 million in payments. Social media immediately blew up with posts and tweets mocking the ads, but Noem declared the campaign a success because she believed it's fulfilling its mission of raising awareness, Kaczke reports.

Noem "might have added that the campaign only continues a tradition of weird South Dakota marketing," Nat Ives writes for The Wall Street Journal. "It follows a campaign seeking long-term residents that set a pretty low bar (“Why die on Mars when you can live in South Dakota?”) and a safe-driving push themed “Don’t Jerk and Drive.” The state canceled that one after complaints."

Love the campaign or hate it, but one thing's for sure: a lot more people are talking about South Dakota's meth problem this week than last week.

Navajo and Hopi tribes scramble to find new revenue after closure of coal-fired power plant, largest in Western U.S.

Navajo Generating Station employee Alex Tsinnjinnie
at work. (AZ Republic photo by Mark Henle)

The Navajo Generating Station, the largest coal-fired power plant in the West, stopped making electricity Monday after 45 years, Ryan Randazzo and Shondlin Silversmith report for The Arizona Republic.

The 2,250-megawatt plant's closure is a deep blow to the economies of Native American tribes. The plant is in Page, Ariz. (pop. 7,247), on Navajo Nation land and most of the employees were Navajo or Hopi. Plant jobs paid much better than most other jobs nearby, and revenue, taxes and royalties from coal made up most of the Hopi budget and a third of the Navajo operating budget, Laurel Morales reports for Arizona State University's Cronkite News. 

Hopi Chairman Timothy Nuvangyaoma estimated that as much as 85 percent of his tribe's general fund budget will be affected by the closure, at least a $12 million revenue loss. Navajo leaders estimated at $30 million to $50 million decline in coal revenues for 2020, Randazzo and Silversmith report. Leaders for both tribes are considering ways to make up the shortfall, including mineral and land development, casinos, renewable energy ventures, and tourism.

The plant had been problematic for years because of the pollution it generated. In 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency struck a deal with the plant's owners to keep it running at two-thirds capacity. Then area utilities voted to close the plant two years ago; they co-own the plant with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The owners, along with the Navajo and Hopi tribes, tried to keep the plant running, but Arizona's federal Salt River Project, which owns the largest share of the plant, announced a year ago it would close the plant if a buyer could not be found. CEO Mike Hummel said the station was closing because it's cheaper to produce electricity from natural gas and renewable energy sources and easier to comply with air-quality regulations, Randazzo and Shondlin report.

Before operations began winding down two years ago, the plant employed 750 people, nearly all Native Americans. Most of the miners have been laid off, though some will work on reclaiming the land. Most plant workers have transferred to new Salt River Project jobs, many in Phoenix—a four-hour drive away. Some plant workers turned down the SRP jobs because they didn't want to leave their communities, Morales reports.

Report: more than 2 million Americans lack clean water

More than two million Americans lack access to clean water, according to a new report by clean-water advocacy non-profits DigDeep and the U.S. Water Alliance. The U.S. doesn't have a reliable, central data source to track how many Americans lack access to water and sanitation, according to the report. So DigDeep founder George McGraw commissioned experts from around the country to piece together the data.

The problem disproportionately affects rural residents, especially Native Americans on reservations, and those in substandard housing, the report found. Because African American and Latinx populations are more likely to live in substandard housing, they're disproportionately affected too.

Moreover, states and local or tribal governments are increasingly on the hook to pay for water system improvements. "Today federal funding for water infrastructure is a small percentage of what it once was. Across the country, 44 million people are served by water systems that recently had Safe Drinking Water Act violations," Lauren Morales reports for NPR.

Native Americans are the worst off, according to the report. Out of every 1,000 Native American households, 58 lack plumbing, compared with three of every 1,000 white households, Morales reports. Navajo Darlene Yazzie said she has to drive nine miles away to access fresh water, and the price is going up soon. She has a windmill-powered well, but the well is dry when the wind isn't blowing, she told Morales. "Yazzie said the windmill water isn't safe for humans anyway. Officials told her arsenic and uranium levels are too high. Yazzie and many others give the water to their animals, even though they plan to eat them," Morales reports. But it's often prohibitively expensive to build water pipelines to remote tribal nations in the Southwest: the Indian Health Service estimated it would cost $200 million to provide basic water and sanitation access to the Navajo Nation.

The problem isn't limited to reservations. Martin County in rural Eastern Kentucky has gained national attention because its water system is so terrible. Things got so bad there that state regulators ordered the water district to sign a contract giving control to outside management by tomorrow or face serious financial penalties. "State regulators placed the blame squarely on the district’s past and current management, saying officials made 'little to no effort to repair and replace aging infrastructure in order to maintain an adequate level of service to its ratepayers,' failed to keep adequate financial records, and failed to hire a permanent general manager," Will Wright reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Local foundation buying only newspaper in wealthy D.C.-area county to save it after investors' $2 million falls short

Fauquier County, Virginia (Wikipedia)

"In a last-ditch effort to save the county’s only newspaper, the owners of The Fauquier Times essentially have agreed to give the weekly to a journalism foundation," Don Del Rosso reports for Fauquier Now, an online news site in the Virginia county, which is in the Washington, D.C., metro area and is "one of the fastest-growing and highest-income counties" in the U.S., Wikipedia says.

The Times, The Prince William Times, some specialty magazines and Piedmont Media websites are being sold for $1,000 to the Piedmont Journalism Foundation, headed by Boisfeuillet “Bo” Jones Jr., former publisher and CEO of The Washington Post.

The nonprofit status will allow the newspapers to accept tax-deductible contributions, said Landon Butler, "who helped manage Piedmont Media and headed its board," Del Rosso reports. The foundation’s other board members are attorney Georgia Herbert of The Plains, a Fauquier town, and Jessica Tuchman Matthews, former head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"The foundation will support the company and local journalism, explained Mr. Jones, noting it funded and provided at no cost to Piedmont Media in-depth stories on rural broadband and the opioid crisis," Del Rosso writes. "The foundation also shared the opioid-crisis series with Fauquier Now."

Piedmont Media's 45 stockholders had bought the papers from Peter Arundel and put about $2 million into the company over the last three years, "according to sources," Del Rosso reports. "Warrenton resident Les Cheek, who bought 15 shares at $1,000 apiece, got the news in a phone call last Thursday from Piedmont Media LLC board member Trevor Potter," who summarized a memo that said “the headwinds for print journalism are very strong in a negative direction,” Cheek said. “And, that basically the investors and managers had basically exhausted their capacity to raise any more funds for the paper in its current business model.”