Rural hospitals ramping services back up — but carefully

In the midst of the pandemic, hospitals nationwide (including rural ones) have shut down elective procedures to limit the spread of the coronavirus, preserve personal protective equipment and keep from being overwhelmed by a surge of covid-19 patients. But as states have loosened restrictions, rural hospitals are trying to navigate the challenges of reopening while observing new pandemic safety protocols—often with less money and fewer resources than larger hospitals.

"Across the country, rural areas are on the forefront of the political and economic movement to reopen, but these areas are not immune to their own struggles with the virus," Laura Benshoff reports for Philadelphia NPR affiliate WHYY.

"For rural hospitals in particular, managing the process of reopening is both fraught and necessary. In the early days of the pandemic, hospitals braced for a surge in infections that could risk overwhelming their services. For rural Wisconsin, that surge didn't come," but it still could, Rob Mentzer reports for Wisconsin Public Radio. "The new normal at these hospitals includes coronavirus testing for all patients ahead of even routine, unrelated procedures, because some carriers of covid-19 are asymptomatic. Hospitals physically separate the areas where covid patients are treated from those where they conduct routine testing, surgeries or other procedures. And everyone, patient or staff, is required to wear a mask."

A second wave of coronavirus cases could overwhelm rural hospitals; that's in danger of happening in Chambersburg, pop. 50,000, in Pennsylvania. Days after Gov. Tom Wolf announced he would ease restrictions on gatherings in Franklin County, covid-19 cases filled the intensive care unit at WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital, Benshoff reports. A physician told Benshoff that the ICU has been operating at near capacity for weeks, and a few more cases would "tip the balance" and overwhelm the hospital.

"As public officials across the country decide whether to ease social distancing restrictions, economic devastation is weighed against the likelihood of loss of life," Benshoff reports. "In Franklin County, momentum has tipped toward reopening but public opinion on the ground falls far short of consensus and some local doctors question the decision."

Rural hospitals and communities are facing the same quandary in Washington state. Gov. Jay Inslee allowed medical providers to do elective and non-urgent procedures on May 18, as long as they use personal protective equipment and other safety and sanitation procedures to limit the spread of the virus, Arielle Dreher reports for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane.

"Hospital officials hope the change will not only help them provide better care, but also help them stabilize their institutions," Drehere reports. "The drop in patients, combined with the costs of trying to acquire PPE, prepare for covid-19 patients and purchase testing materials, led to financial decline, at times swiftly, for rural hospitals.

Grain bin accidents and deaths up because of wet weather

Reported grain bin entrapments and deaths have increased because of last year's record wet weather. Nationwide, grain bin entrapments increased by 27 percent (from 61 to 67 incidents) and deaths increased by 53% (from 26 to 39) from 2018 to 2019. The trend could continue this year because of similar weather early on.

"Heavy rainfall and brisk harvest conditions throughout 2019 across the 10-state 'corn belt' that includes South Dakota led many farmers to harvest grain crops later than usual and produce grain that was immature or damper than normal," Bart Pfankuch reports for South Dakota News Watch. "Those factors from the 2019 harvest, in addition to the use of old, leaky bins on some farms, have combined to reduce the quality of grain being stored and result in a product known as “'out-of-condition' grain."

Such grain is more likely to clump together and less likely to flow freely from the bin, meaning farmers are more likely to have to go into the bin to try to fix the plug, Pfankuch reports. Owners of small farmers are more susceptible to grain bin entrapments because federal workplace safety laws aren't enforced on farms with 10 employees or fewer.

Earlier this year, a Nebraska farmer announced he'd invented a relatively inexpensive and easy to install machine that could help prevent grain-bin deaths by making it unnecessary for farmers to enter a grain bin to break up the clump. Read more here.

Iowa passes its third 'ag-gag' law, focused on trespassing

On Friday, Iowa state legislators passed a bill that would penalize undercover animal-rights activists who expose conditions on factory farms, buried in an agriculture bill that mostly addressed pandemic-related concerns. On Wednesday, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed it.

The law, sought by the Iowa Pork Producers Association and sponsored by State. Sen. Ken Rozenboom (a factory farm owner), is the third try for a so-called "ag-gag" law. "The first version was overturned on First Amendment grounds in January 2019, and the second was put on hold while a constitutional challenge moves through the courts," Alleen Brown reports for The Intercept.

The law establishes a new crime, "food operation trespass," that would penalize anyone who enters without permission a place where meat is processed or sold, or any place where a "food animal" is kept. "A first-time trespasser would now face up to two years of incarceration and a fine of up to $6,250," Brown reports. "If they entered a farm without authorization a second time, they could be charged with a felony carrying up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $7,500."

At least two dozen other states have introduced similar bills; in a handful of states, the laws have stuck, and in Idaho, Kentucky, Utah and Wyoming they've been overturned by courts, Brown reports.

Tyson gets immunity in poultry price-fixing probe

In return for its cooperation Tyson Foods has gained immunity from prosecution in the Justice Department's investigation into whether major poultry processors illegally colluded to fix the price of broiler chickens. "Under a program run by the department’s antitrust division, a company can receive immunity if it’s the first member of a price-fixing cartel to inform federal prosecutors," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture.

Four poultry executives from Pilgrim's Pride and Claxton Poultry Farms were indicted last week on charges that they fixed prices and rigged bids on broiler chickens sold to grocery chains and restaurants from 2012 to 2017. "All four individuals have pleaded not guilty, and the trial is set for August, McCrimmon reports.

The DOJ began investigating meat processors in recent weeks after farmers and ranchers complained that processors have been paying them extremely low prices for their livestock, even though meat prices (especially beef) surged for buyers, Leah Nylen and Liz Crampton report for Politico.

$15 million ad campaign launched with money from Google to encourage public to support local news media

A $15 million "Support Local News" ad campaign launched yesterday in an effort to raise awareness about the need and importance of funding local newsrooms in the U.S. and Canada through subscriptions, donations and advertising, according to a press release.

The campaign is a collaboration between Local Media Consortium and Local Media Association, with funding from the Google via its Google News Initiative. The campaign will run for six weeks in newspapers, TV, radio stations, and news websites, encouraging people to visit the Support Local News website where they can find links to local news sources that need support, and can also donate to a fund supporting local investigative reporting in North American newsrooms. Donors can also designate contributions for publishers of color doing investigative reporting.

The ad campaign is meant to boost local news sources hurting from decreased ad revenue during the pandemic—a problem the public is largely unaware of. More than 30 local newsrooms have closed since the pandemic began, but a Pew study found that 71% of consumers think their local news media outlets are doing well financially.

Community Newspaper Holdings converts three papers to online-only after merging (in effect closing) several others

Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., which recently "merged" or closed newspapers in Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and Oklahoma, has converted a daily and a weekly in Southern Kentucky to online-only, following the strategy it recently took with a daily in Eastern Illinois.

Glasgow Daily Times publisher Bill Hanson announced Tuesday that the day's print edition would be its last, due to "steep losses in revenue" from the coronavirus pandemic "on top of burdensome print delivery costs, newsprint and ink expenses, and the production outlay required to run the presses. We urge Daily Times subscribers to continue to support the newspaper online."

Last week, giving identical reasons, CNHI did likewise with the Wayne County Outlook, a weekly in Monticello, which operates as a satellite of its daily Commonwealth-Journal in Somerset. The daily is now in a position to get the public-notice advertising for the county.

Glasgow will still be served by a weekly, the Barren County Progress, owned by a small regional group, Jobe Publishing Inc., which is owned by Jeff Jobe, this year's president of the Kentucky Press Association.

CNHI has taken the online-only strategy with one other paper, the Shelbyville Daily Union in Illinois. Its primary strategy has been to "merge" smaller papers into larger ones, in effect closing them. That began in Alabama in April, when the North Jefferson News in Gardendale was merged with The Cullman Times. The towns are 40 miles apart and in non-adjacent counties.

That looked much like the May merger of The Morehead News and two other weeklies in northeastern Kentucky with CHNI's Ashland Daily Independent. In Indiana, the company merged the Batesville Herald-Tribune and the Rushville Republican into the Greensburg Daily News, and the Zionsville Times-Sentinel into the Lebanon Reporter; in Iowa, it merged the Centerville Iowegian into the Ottumwa Courier, and The Pella Chronicle and the Knoxville Journal Express with the Oskaloosa Herald; and in Oklahoma, it folded the Edmond Sun into the Norman Transcript, though the two towns are on opposite sides of Oklahoma City.

CNHI news vice president Bill Ketter told The Rural Blog, "Again, the reason is financial, tied to insufficient local advertising and subscribers. We are providing news coverage of these communities by the merged newspaper. CNHI’s goal is to save newspapers and serve our local communities in the best way we can. But given the overall economic challenges facing the newspaper industry, we cannot operate our smallest markets at a financial loss. Thus the alternatives of digital only and merged newspapers."

Rural Americans just as worried about pandemic as national average, according to new poll

Early on in the pandemic, rural Americans as a whole tended to be more skeptical about the coronavirus pandemic than their urban and suburban counterparts, a difference driven mostly by political ideology. But a new nationwide online poll shows that most rural residents are taking the pandemic seriously these days, Tim Marema reports for The Daily Yonder. The poll was conducted from April 24-26 by Civis Analytics and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

According to the poll, nearly 90 percent of rural respondents said they will probably continue social distancing and other precautions even when their state begins to lift mandatory restrictions. "About three-quarters of rural respondents said they are somewhat or very concerned about the coronavirus," Marema reports. "The response from rural participants was slightly lower than the national response. But the 3-point gap is within the poll’s margin of error, meaning the rural and national responses are statistically indistinguishable."

Other results from the poll:

• About half of rural respondents, about the same as the nationwide average, agreed that their state has taken appropriate action to contain the pandemic.
• Only 5-6% of rural and national respondents said the government has overreacted to the pandemic.
• About three-quarters of rural and national respondents said they've avoided crowds and public spaces during the pandemic.
• About two-thirds of rural and national respondents said they're committed to social distancing.
• Rural attitudes toward the pandemic varied by region: rural Southerners were more likely to wish their states were doing more to control the pandemic than rural Northeasterners.
• About one-third of rural respondents said they're very unlikely to lose their job because of the pandemic, compared to about one-quarter of national respondents.
• About one-quarter of rural people of color said they were unlikely to lose their job because of the pandemic, compared to more than half of rural whites. 
• Rural and national respondents reported similar levels of trust in information sources except when it came to info provided by President Trump or Vice President Pence. Nationwide, 45.4% of respondents said they trust info from the president or vice president, compared to more than 55% of rural respondents.

Alabama nixes controversial charter school just before opening, the first time the state has shut down a charter

"A controversial public charter school in south Alabama met its end today, two months before opening," Trisha Powell Crain reports for Alabama.com. After a half-hour closed session, the Alabama Public Charter School Commission voted to revoke the charter for Woodland Preparatory School in Chatom "for failing to meet conditions of pre-opening, lack of adherence to generally accepted financial standards, and failing to establish community support for the school."

That was two weeks after a hearing in which school representatives explained at a hearing why they haven't been able to meet the commission's conditions. The school was first approved in May 2018 and scheduled to open this August, but in February the commission voted to begin the revocation process, Crain reports. The move marks the first time the state commission has revoked a school's charter. There are currently four public charter schools operating in the state under the commission's authority.

The for-profit rural school, first approved in May 2018, has been beset with controversy since the beginning, plagued by local worries that the charter would drain tax money from local public schools. Locals were also concerned that a national organization that evaluates charter school applications gave the for-profit charter was given a failing grade. Some locals were also worried because the school would have been part of an informal network of charter schools run operated by followers of a Turkish Muslim preacher living in Pennsylvania. 

In rural town, virus threatens vital summer tourist revenue

A rural tourist town in north-central Washington state illustrates the consequences of the pandemic and the controversy it can cause among locals trying to keep the town afloat while staying safe.

Winthrop, Washington, which has fewer than 500 residents, depends on an influx of summer tourists who use the town as a jumping off point for hiking, biking, and mountain climbing nearby, Bill Lucia reports for Route Fifty. At least two dozen counties in the state have been approved for lighter restrictions, but Gov. Jay Inslee has still advised people to limit non-essential travel, including to tourist towns.

"Despite recommendations like this, tourist traffic will likely continue to flow into towns like Winthrop as the state eases virus-related restrictions and people who’ve been cooped up venture out, seeking to take advantage of long days and beautiful summer weather," Lucia reports. "It’s a set of circumstances many rural tourist destinations are apt to face in the months ahead."

Tourists flocked to Winthrop on Memorial Day weekend, and while some locals told Lucia they were grateful for the increase in revenue, others said most tourists weren't social distancing or wearing masks, and they were worried about the pandemic spreading. The area had only five confirmed covid-19 cases since mid-April, but the mayor said a bump in cases could strain scarce local medical facilities.

Republicans moving $900M bill to fix national parks and protect public lands – and two vulnerable GOP senators

Sens. Daines and Gardner (Photo by Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call)

"After decades of frustration over low levels of funding, the nation’s conservation community is on the brink of realizing a long-held goal — legislation that would assure that federal money is available for the preservation of public lands," Carl Hulse reports for The New York Times. "That is thanks to a desire among Republicans to protect what they consider two worthy assets of their own:" GOP Sens. Corey Gardner of Colorado and Steve Daines of Montana, who are in close re-election races.

The bill would fully and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million annually. Moving it "has required an about-face by the president and the grudging cooperation of some Republicans who have long opposed the measure on principle, believing it adds too much to the soaring deficit," Hulse reports. "The legislation cleared a procedural hurdle on Monday by a lopsided vote, 80 to 17, in an indication that it is headed for passage this month. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who is eager to hold on to his position as majority leader after November’s elections, has gotten behind the bill . . . He is always careful to credit the two Western senators for the measure that he describes in glowing terms."

The arguments and timing for the bill are more than just political. "Its sponsors note that the pandemic has focused public attention on the need for public space for outdoor recreation, and that the park maintenance aspect alone will provide tens of thousands of jobs in communities that have been hit hard by the loss of tourism," Hulse reports.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who was working on a similar bill that is included in the legislation, said in a press release that it would be "the biggest boost to our national parks in 50 years" and cut in half their $12 billion deferred maintenance backlog. He said the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina, the most-visited park, "has $224 million of deferred maintenance and an annual budget of $20 million a year." He said that is "a massive disappointment to people who consider our national parks as our greatest treasures – who go to our parks and find a campground closed, a bathroom not working, a bridge that's closed, a road with potholes, a trail that’s worn out or a visitor center that could be dilapidated . . . things that are broken and don't work, and interfere with the ability of the American people to go outdoors."

Rising real-estate sales in rural New York reflect pandemic-spurred urge to get away from city congestion, infection

The pandemic seems to be driving up rural real estate sales in rural areas north of New York City, Lisa Green reports for Rural Intelligence. The trend may be repeated in other states as well.

Even before the pandemic, rising housing prices were already driving urban residents to head for less-populated pastures, but the pandemic seems to have accelerated the trend. Part of the urge to move to more rural areas may come from wariness about living in the close quarters of the city, which can encourage the spread of infection. More relaxed work policies that allow telecommuting are another factor, Brad Cartier reports for Million Acres, a Motley Fool website.

As early as March, a report from real estate brokerage Redfin showed that "the seven-day average change in page views of homes in rural and small towns was up 115% and 88%, respectively. Further, the decline in pending sales was less dramatic in small towns than in urban ones," Cartier reports.

In a nationwide Harris poll conducted in early May, 37% of respondents said the pandemic made them want to live in a rural area more than 21 miles away from a major city.

Democrats wary of aid to farmers being a political tool

As the Department of Agriculture begins distributing $16 billion in direct payments to farmers hurt by the pandemic, many are "raising questions about how the money will be allocated and whether there is sufficient oversight to guard against partisan abuse of the program," Sharon LaFraniere reports for The New York Times. "Months before an election in which some farm states are major battlegrounds, Democrats and other critics of the administration’s agriculture policies are expressing concern that the new subsidies, provided by Congress with bipartisan backing, could be doled out to ensure President Trump continues to win the backing of one of his key voting blocs.

Their worries are based on how the administration distributed $28 billion over the past two years on direct aid to farmers hurt by the trade war with China and lousy weather. Farmers, their lobbying groups, politicians and others have criticized the administration for distributing such funds unequally, saying the program was "excessive, devised on the fly and tilted toward states politically important to Republicans," LaFraniere reports. "Polls suggest that farmers are strongly united in supporting Trump. They are important voting blocs in key swing states like Wisconsin, vital in some states like Iowa that he is fighting to hold, and a core constituency in many other solidly Republican states across the Midwest and South."

Farmers have increasingly relied on federal aid over the past few years; direct federal payments made up an estimated 24 percent of all farm income in 2019.

U.S. oil output increasing as global demand remains down

Though oil and gas drilling in the United States recently hit an 80-year low, and global demand remains down, American oil producers are bringing production back up.

"Scores of shale-drilling companies turned off wells to reduce output when U.S. oil prices fell to negative territory in late April, after millions world-wide stopped driving and flying due to the new coronavirus, causing a steep drop in global demand," Rebecca Elliott reports for The Wall Street Journal. "Now that more of the world is reopening and prices are rebounding to nearly $40 a barrel, companies including Parsley Energy Inc. and WPX Energy Inc. are starting to turn some of those wells back on, even as they continue to put off most new drilling."

Output is still "far below" pre-pandemic peaks, when the U.S. was the world's top producer of crude oil. "While turning existing wells back on is likely to temporarily boost U.S. production this summer, American oil output is still widely expected to drop in 2020," Elliott reports. "That is because shale wells lose steam quickly, and companies have sharply cut back on the number of new wells they are drilling." That will likely continue to hurt the nation's economy, according to analysts.

Global oil demand has increased, though it's still an estimated 13% below last year's levels. On Saturday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to extend production cuts for another month to bring prices up. "OPEC delegates were briefed on the likelihood that U.S. producers would turn the taps back on last week," Elliot reports, "but also discussed forecasts that American production would likely decline later in the year before agreeing to extend output cuts."

Rural African Americans are at higher risk from covid-19

Though all population groups have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, some are at a disproportionate risk of dying from covid-19 in the United States. That includes rural residents and racial/ethnic minorities. Those who are both, especially rural African-Americans, have a much higher risk of being hospitalized and/or dying from the infection, according to a newly published paper in The Journal of Rural Health.

That echoes other studies that have found rural non-whites' overall medical risk to be higher, compounded by their rural location, access and health issues spurred by historical racial inequalities, and unconscious bias from medical providers.

The paper examines three possible explanations for why African-Americans are at a greater risk for covid-19, including social determinants of health (where someone is born, what kind of family they're born in and grow up with, and other factors all influenced by the distribution of money, power and resources), comorbidities and coexposures (underlying health issues and risk factors such as smoking), and genetic differences.

The authors recommend "innovative preventive and therapeutic interventions targeting the rural African American communities" to help fight the spread of covid-19.

Racial justice protests happening in rural areas too

Chad Jones of Holland, Ark. (photo provided)

Thousands of communities, some in foreign countries, have held demonstrations over the past week to protest the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other people of color at the hands of law enforcement, as well as general racial and ethnic inequality. But such protests aren't limited to big cities: some are happening in small towns.

Some are college towns, like State College, Pa., and Morehead, Ky.; such communities tend to have younger and more liberal residents, Alisha Ebrahimji reports for CNN. Others are smaller, agrarian communities like Holland, Ark., pop. 552. Local farmer Chad Jones staged a one-man protest recently because he wanted to show that "not all small towns come with small minds."

"Demonstrators marched and chanted for racial justice in Corbin, Morehead, Barbourville, Richmond and many more Kentucky cities and towns," the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Corbin had "a notorious incident in October 1919 in which a white mob forced scores of black people out of town." In Midway, between Lexington and Frankfort, dozens of locals drew anti-racism messages on sidewalks Saturday, the Midway Messenger reports.

Hundreds of residents in small, politically conservative towns in southern Illinois have protested in recent days. As one protester said: "We don’t want Franklin County to be known for its racism. This is more about bringing the community together more than anything else," Molly Parker reports for The Southern Illinoisian.

In Ontario, Oregon, pop. 11,366, hundreds came out for a protest Thursday where local educators, organizers, and government officials gave speeches and shared stories about their experiences with ethnic and gender inequality, Rachel Parsons reports for the Malheur Enterprise.

Maps show spread of covid-19 to rural and Trump counties

New high-prevalence covid-19 counties through April 19 (left) and from April 20-May 31 (right). Brookings maps.

The coronavirus initially hit large urban areas, most of which went for Hillary Clinton in 2016. "However, covid-19 is continuing to spread to more parts of the country; since late April, counties with a high prevalence of cases have transitioned from 'blue' America to 'red,' where arguments for immediate reopening have been more pervasive," William Frey reports for Brookings.

High-prevalence covid-19 counties by population,
March 29-May 31 (Brookings chart)

According to a Brookings analysis, counties that were newly designated as having a high covid-19 prevalence—at least 100 cases per 100,000 people—in the six week between April 20 and May 31 were more rural, less racially diverse, and more likely to have voted for President Trump in 2016 than counties with a high covid-19 prevalence before mid-April, Frey reports.

"Clearly, the demographic attributes of the most recently identified high-prevalence counties are more favorable to Trump, given his popularity in smaller and rural areas and among white voters," Frey reports. Here's a Brookings map showing how high-case counties increasingly became more common in rural areas:

Rural Journalism director: Newspapers must embrace bold, persistent experimentation to survive and thrive

This is the author's latest monthly "Into the Issues" column in Publishers' Auxiliary, the newspaper of the National Newspaper Association.

By Al Cross

Director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

Our country may not be in a depression, but the newspaper business is, and its fatality rate may be as great at that of the coronavirus. The pandemic and its economic restrictions have accelerated closures and mergers, which have increasingly affected county-seat weeklies, long the most stable type of American newspaper.

The economy is gradually reopening, but with no vaccine or proven treatment, the virus remains a threat, and that threatens a resurgence of covid-19 cases and more economic reversals. To get through this, newspapers need to prove their value, and they need to try new things.

The pandemic is spawning rivers of misinformation, an if there was ever a time for newspapers to reassert their franchise as the main finders of fact for democracy, this is it. But they must remember to assert that on social media, too, and to remind social-media consumers how those media and newspapers differ.

We must repeatedly explain that news media offer journalism, which has a discipline of verification: we emphasize facts, attribute opinion, and clearly separate the two. (That separation has eroded lately, and needs shoring up.) Social media have almost no discipline and no verification, so the facts get lost in a sea of opinion and invective, driven by algorithms giving people what they want, not what they need. They need to know that.

Don’t like online arguments? This is a fight for your life, so you should wage it on all fronts. Ask your critics to cite specifics, and when they do, remind them that it’s easy to pick examples of bad journalism from thousands of reports. As someone who got into journalism as a youth baseball scorekeeper and correspondent, I like to say journalism has a fielding percentage about as good as Major League players, around .984. By my reckoning, we’re fair and accurate 49 times out of 50. We do make two-base errors sometimes, but unlike social media and ballplayers, we correct them.

Newspapers’ survival depends on more than trust. They must provide value, which means good public-service journalism. How do you pay for that when advertising has dried up? Community newspapers need to be more aggressive in following their metro counterparts in asking their audiences to provide a greater share of revenue, and they need to be frank with their readers about their paper’s finances.

They also need explore a source of revenue that’s becoming more common: philanthropy. It’s unlikely that many community papers will have reporters paid by nonprofits, or get grants from foundations, but in every county in this country, there are people with money who would like to put it to good use. Many of them would define becoming a sponsor of a newspaper, to help it offer good journalism and stay alive, as a good use of their money.

Perhaps the best example of that is the Foothills Forum, a nonprofit in Rappahanock County, Virginia, that finances high-quality, in-depth journalism for the weekly Rappahannock News. The county has more money and more journalists than average, because it’s a little over an hour from Washington, D.C., but its paper has more than four years of experience that could provide guidance for others. We’ve written about it several times on The Rural Blog.

Philanthropists often want to help students, and that includes student journalists. When many University of Missouri journalism students’ internships fell through, faculty members Kathy Kiely and Damon Kiesow created a pop-up newsroom to produce stories for news outlets across the state, with students paid with funds from the school, the Knight Foundation and alumnus Walt Potter. As paid internships have become less common, students are accepting unpaid internships at community papers, and the relationship is mutually beneficial.

Universities can help in other ways. There is scant published research about community newspapers, and state press associations or newspaper groups should get researchers to examine the relationships of community papers and their audiences – including why they are losing readers and how they might get them back.

Another potential source of help is government – not the direct subsidies that are anathema to most journalists, but public-service advertising during the pandemic. In Kentucky, local governments have financed sample-copy editions of weeklies loaded with information about the coronavirus and preventing covid-19, and there is even more reason to do that now, as we need to take care to prevent a resurgence.

Now also might be a good time for a makeover, to spur single-copy sales. Think about a magazine format like The Canadian Record in Texas, which runs a compelling color photo on the front with blurbs about major features. It goes for $1.50 a copy, and folks in Hemphill County snap it up, because they know it’s good journalism.

Many other ideas are out there, in Pub Aux, state press groups and the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors’ online discussion board and monthly newsletter. The May edition had ideas on advertising, covering covid-19, online journalism, dealing with social media and helping communities get through the crisis.

Ideas are what we need. Not all will work, but our industry is at a juncture much like the bottom of the Great Depression, when presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt called for “bold, persistent experimentation.”

That’s not something for which newspapers are known, especially community papers, but they’d do well to follow it. After all, FDR’s line was written by a newspaper reporter, Ernest K. Lindley of the strongly Republican New York Herald Tribune. When Lindley and other reporters chided him about the lack of zing in his pre-convention remarks, FDR challenged them to draft a speech. “Lindley took the bait,” wrote presidential historian James MacGregor Burns, and bold, persistent experimentation helped save the country. It might save newspapers, too.

Most counties lost jobs in April, but rural counties lost a smaller percentage of theirs; county-level data available

Job losses from March-April 2020; differences among states may reflect policies on unemployment benefits and other factors. (Daily Yonder map; click on the image to for a larger version, or click here for the interactive version)

"Just about every corner of the country lost huge numbers of jobs between March and April of this year, but rural places fared far better than the nation’s largest cities," Bill Bishop reports for The Daily Yonder. "April was the first full month of lockdowns and business closings due to the covid-19 outbreak, so nearly every county suffered job losses. But the decline in employment diminished as one moved away from the centers of the nation’s largest cities, according to employment data just released by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics."

Specifically, the most rural counties (those that touch no metropolitan area) lost 10.8 percent of their jobs, rural counties near metro areas lost 11.7%, and the largest metro counties lost 15.1% from March to April, Bishop reports. Rural economies dependent on farming lost 7% of their jobs in that time period, compared to rural counties dependent on recreation, which lost 13.3% of their jobs.

Read more at the Yonder for a deeper statistical breakdown among rural-urban lines.

Editor's view: What journalists do, and how they should do it

By Jim Zachary
    Journalists play an important role during volatile times, mass protests and racial discord.
    Journalists give voice to the voiceless.
    Journalists write the first draft of history.

    Journalists share the pain, the angst and the frustrations of the people they cover, through their words.
    Journalists provide context.
    Journalists report on and help explain the positions of those in power.
    Journalists can provide a bridge between polarized communities and individuals through dispassionate reports.
    The role of the journalist is to chronicle events as they unfold.
    Journalists should be unimpeded by the authorities and should always have full access, free to report exactly what happens on the streets, in neighborhoods and in the halls of government.
    In turn, journalists should be professional and go about doing their jobs while maintaining high standards of journalistic ethics and conduct.
    The role the journalist plays is not in carrying signs, chanting slogans or marching in the streets.
    Journalists do their jobs with words.
    Their words can be powerful.
    Their words can effect change.
    Their role is to observe, to listen and to learn.
    Their role is to report.
    Their role is to speak — or write — truth.

    Their role is to tell the stories unfolding all around them.
    They are not present to take sides. Their side is the side of truth.
    Not everyone will like the truth they tell or the stories they share, but dedicated journalists persevere, not as activists, but as truth tellers.
    Sometimes journalists are attacked.
    Some have even been attacked by police — pushed, hit, shoved and arrested.
    That is wrong and police must be held accountable when they strong arm the press. The freedom of the press to cover and report is guaranteed by the First Amendment and crucial to an open and free society.
    Far more journalists are attacked in public spaces and on social media by people who simply do not like the truth.
    Simple straightforward reporting often conjures cries of “fake news” and “enemy of the people.”
    News reporting that people simply do not like is erroneously labeled “fake.”
    Reporters who are doing little more than chronicling the things they see and hear are called “enemies.”
    The women and men — the journalists — at your local newspaper are someone’s daughter, son, mother, father, brother or sister. They are people you know, people who live in the community. You might sit next to them at ball games or church services. They may be shopping in the grocery store beside you or eating at the table next to you in a restaurant.
    They cover your child’s school play or ballgame. They share news about a fundraiser of a nonprofit you volunteer with or write a compelling feature story inspiring philanthropy and incubating a spirit of generosity.
    They are, most certainly, not your enemy.
    Journalists do hold the powerful accountable and expose nefarious acts. They investigate corruption, keep an eye on the public purse and defend the public’s right to know.
    While they are not working in laboratories to develop a cure for a global pandemic or in harm’s way on the frontlines of a battlefield in a war-torn country defending freedom, they are providing vital services, viz. celebrating community, reporting facts and demanding accountability.
    Journalists are the friends of democracy, friends of justice — friends of the truth.

Jim Zachary is Deputy National Editor of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., editor of The Valdosta Daily Times and president of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. He can be reached at jzachary@cnhi.com.

Bipartisan bill aims to help farmers profit from carbon credits

A bipartisan group of four senators introduced a bill Thursday, June 4, that would make it easier for farmers to make money from reducing greenhouse-gas emissions on their land and selling carbon credits. The bill is sponsored by Mike Braun, R-Ind.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.

"In what might be considered a stunning trifecta for a climate bill in Congress, the Growing Climate Solutions Act lists significant support among a cross-section of agricultural groups, major corporations and environmental organizations," Chris Clayton reports for DTN/The Progressive Farmer. "The bill does not address broad fundamental challenges to lowering greenhouse-gas emissions nationally. But for farmers and owners of major forestry operations nationally, the legislation does create a certification program at USDA that would help address technical barriers for farmers and landowners who want to participate in carbon-credit markets."

Who's buying the credits? "California and 10 Northeastern states have set up markets for buying and selling credits for the right to emit carbon into the atmosphere, effectively putting a cap on those states’ contributions to climate change," Dino Grandoni and Paulina Firozi report for The Washington Post. "Other voluntary markets let eco-conscious consumers pay money to offset emissions from airline travel and other activities."

Braun said the program could help farmers who are struggling right now because of low prices and other factors during the coronavirus pandemic, the Post reports.

"The bill also promotes access to technical assistance, comparable to what USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service provides now for conservation practices," Clayton reports.

Quick hits: Evangelicals vary in response to Trump's Bible photo op; Tyson reinstates policy penalizing absent workers

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.

Op-ed advocates making investing in resilient, localized food system part of next stimulus. Read more here.

Critics say small rural businesses left out of Paycheck Protection Plan funds; Reuters analysis shows how much PPP money went to big businesses that ducked paying taxes. Read more here.

Evangelicals vary in response to Trump's Bible photo op. Read more here.

Op-ed touts solar power as economic engine in rural eastern Kentucky. Read more here.

Webinar discusses news media perspectives on mental health during the pandemic. Read more here.

Tyson reinstates policy penalizing absentee workers, but says workers with covid-19 symptoms won't be penalized. Read more here.

Execs at Pilgrim's Pride and Claxton Poultry Farms indicted in alleged price-fixing scheme; others could be charged

"The chief executive of one of the country’s largest chicken producers was indicted on a price-fixing charge on Wednesday along with three other current and former executives at companies that supply chicken to groceries and restaurants across the United States," Cade Metz reports for The New York Times. "The indictment, by a federal grand jury in United States District Court in Denver, alleges that senior executives at Pilgrim’s Pride, based in Colorado, and Claxton Poultry Farms in Georgia fixed prices and rigged bids from 2012 to 2017. The charges are the first in a still-open Justice Department investigation involving several other major chicken producers."

The DOJ began investigating U.S. meat processors in recent weeks after farmers and ranchers complained that processors have been paying them extremely low prices for their livestock, even though meat prices (especially beef) surged for buyers, Leah Nylen and Liz Crampton report for Politico.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere hit a record high, though total greenhouse gases decline due to pandemic

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as recorded at the
Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. (Washington Post chart)

Greenhouse-gas emissions have dropped because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the amount of carbon dioxide in the air just hit a record high.

"According to readings from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the amount of CO2 in the air in May 2020 hit an average of slightly greater than 417 parts per million. This is the highest monthly average value ever recorded, and is up from 414.7 ppm in May of last year," Andrew Freedman and Chris Mooney report for The Washington Post. "Carbon dioxide levels are the highest they’ve been in human history, and likely the highest in 3 million years. The last time there was this much CO2 in the atmosphere, global average surface temperatures were significantly warmer than they are today, and sea levels were 50 to 80 feet higher."

This sustained, and accelerating, increase in greenhouse gases is hastening global warming, the Post reports, which has serious implications for agriculture and more.

Appeals court bans dicamba-based herbicide sales in U.S. for 6 months; EPA is likely to reauthorize it for next year

A federal appeals court has essentially halted the sale of dicamba-based herbicides in the U.S. for the next six months after ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency did not do its due diligence when reauthorizing the chemical in 2018. That reauthorization expires Dec. 20.

Environmental groups sued EPA in 2018 in an attempt to force the agency to cancel its approval of XtendiMax, a dicamba-based herbicide then produced by Monsanto, which has since been acquired by Bayer AG, Joel Rosenblatt reports for Bloomberg. The ruling applies to dicamba-based herbicides by other companies such as BASF and Corteva Agriscience.

The three-judge panel ruled that the EPA had "failed entirely" to acknowledge the risks of dicamba and therefore violated federal regulations by reauthorizing XtendiMax for two years in October 2018," Rosenblatt reports. The judges wrote in the opinion that the EPA's decision also failed to consider the "enormous social cost to farming communities" where disagreements over dicamba damage have "turned farmer against farmer, and neighbor against neighbor," and cited the 2016 murder of an Arkansas farmer during an argument over dicamba damage.

Dicamba is well-known for vaporizing after application and drifting to nearby fields, where it can damage crops not genetically engineered to resist it. That can unfairly influence farmers to buy dicamba-resistant seeds and pesticides, the judges ruled. "The decision is the latest blow to Bayer in the wake of its $63 billion takeover of Monsanto — a deal that made the German company a leader in agriculture products but also saddled it with a mountain of legal liabilities related to weed killers," Rosenblatt reports. In February, a Missouri peach farmer was awarded $265 million in a lawsuit against Bayer and BASF over dicamba-damaged crops.

State inspection agencies have been inundated with similar complaints for the past three years. Bayer's XtendiMax herbicide is "widely blamed for damaging 3.6 million acres of untreated soybeans in 2017, and more than 1 million acres in 2018," Rosenblatt reports.

"Still, the EPA will probably re-authorize dicamba in a revised form in time for next year -- and the agency could even move up that reauthorization before Dec. 20, when the current clearance was set to expire."

U.S.-China farm trade deal is in doubt after dispute over Hong Kong, Chinese cuts in soybean and pork purchases

The future of the "Phase 1" trade deal between the United States and China is in question after recent actions by the two governments, Karl Plume, Hallie Gu, and Keith Zhai report for Reuters.

In January, the countries signed a partial deal in which China promised to increase purchases of U.S. farm products by $32 billion over two years, if that didn't disrupt China's other trade relationships. China was once the U.S.'s top customer for soybeans, but lately China has been buying big from Brazil, Keith Johnson reports for Foreign Policy.

China recently passed a national-security bill that effectively overrode Hong Kong's legislature, giving Beijing more control over the city. In response, President Trump said Friday that the administration will begin eliminating policy exemptions for Hong Kong on extradition, technology exports and more, Jonathan Garber reports for Fox Business.

China volleyed back by canceling some U.S. agriculture purchases, weakening U.S. corn, wheat and lean hog futures; soybean futures remained flat. Sources with insider knowledge said the Chinese government told state-owned companies to stop making large-scale soybean and pork purchases from the U.S.; one of the sources said corn and cotton purchases were also on the chopping block, Reuters reports. But after that order, state-owned Chinese firms bought at least 180,000 tons of U.S. soybeans on Monday, scheduled to ship in the fall when U.S. soybeans are usually the cheapest on the global market, said three U.S. traders familiar with the deal.

"It was not immediately clear why buying continued after Beijing’s message to state-owned firms, but U.S. traders said Chinese importers still have not covered a large share of October and November soybean needs, Reuters reports. "The soybean sales on Monday were small compared to recent purchases by state-owned firms totaling 1 million tonnes or more at a time."

"Any sustained halt in buying would further threaten progress in meeting goals set in the Phase 1 trade deal signed in January," Reuters reports.

'To mask or not to mask?' reminds columnist of questions some had about seat belts, DUI laws and smoking bans

By Mary Jane McKinney

     To mask or not to mask? That is the question a lot of people are wrestling with as the coronavirus pandemic in Texas worsens. We as a culture have been here before. Americans have resisted seat belts, helmets, infant car seats, and other safety measures. They have also resented laws prohibiting driving while drunk, buzzed, or high. And for 60 years, Americans have been warned not to use tobacco. Laws now prohibit smoking in public places, but tobacco use persists in spite of overwhelming evidence that it is harmful. Most Americans go along with changes, but there is always a percentage of the population who are slow to comply. Now it’s wearing a protective face mask in a pandemic.
     Our village post office is the size of a large walk-in closet. The mail is put up Monday through Saturday by 11 am. After that time, more than 300 residents enter the closet-sized space to get their mail. The daily trip has become dangerous as residents try to social distance. I thought I had the answer to safe mail pickup when I started getting my mail after 7 pm. My plan worked for four weeks until others had the same idea. Now there is a line of cars parked on Main Street between 7 pm and 8 pm. Almost everyone I’ve seen at the late mail pickup is over 60 years old. Nobody wears a mask except me. I’ve got gloves on, too.
     The whole idea of the late pickup is to go to the post office when no one else is there, thus eliminating the need for a mask. Why the resistance to masks? We can blame human nature for the reluctance to change. I also think the mask seems so low-tech; primitive; and to some, silly, that a lot of people dismiss its power to make a difference in the pandemic. But masks work to slow the spread of the virus. I heard a reporter in Hong Kong say that not wearing a mask in public is like not wearing clothes. In China, Singapore, South Korea, and other Asian countries, wearing a mask is accepted as a public health requirement and a cultural norm. The root of resistance to masking up in rural Texas may be the fear that the custom will become a cultural norm in the United States.
     As the number of coronavirus cases in Texas rises, we will also see an increase in mask-wearing. We’re just putting off the inevitable as long as possible. One of the best things about living in a small town is the feeling of safety. The illusion that the virus won’t come here is just that—an illusion. As more businesses open, we will see more cashiers, clerks, and store managers in masks. We will see more stores requiring customers to wear masks.
     As the covid-19 cases increase in my county, I already see more West Texans wearing masks. At first, we had three cases, then 17, then 29, and now 106 cases. The virus is here, and more people will be infected in the next few weeks, especially after the abandonment of social distancing on Memorial Day weekend.
     Epidemiologists are calling the spike in cases “the second wave of the first wave.” Texas cases may reach 100,000 at the rate they are going. Eventually, Gov. Abbott will have to follow in the footsteps of Gov. Murphy of New Jersey, who told his citizens to wear masks and stay six feet apart. Exasperated, he finally tweeted, "ATTENTION KNUCKLEHEADS: KEEP A SAFE DISTANCE."

Mary Jane McKinney of Christoval, Texas, writes her "Plain English" column for Texas newspapers. 

EPA quick hits: Agency weakens states' power over pipeline projects; refused to use current data to revise air toxics rule

"The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced that it had limited states’ ability to block the construction of energy infrastructure projects, part of the Trump administration’s goal of promoting gas pipelines, coal terminals and other fossil fuel development," Lisa Friedman reports for The New York Times. "The completed rule curtails sections of the U.S. Clean Water Act that New York has used to block an interstate gas pipeline, and Washington employed to oppose a coal export terminal. The move is expected to set up a legal clash with Democratic governors who have sought to block fossil fuel projects."

Also in EPA news: Emails show that the agency recently refused a White House Office of Management and Budget request to use current data when revising its rule on mercury air pollution.

The regulation involved a second look at the Obama administration’s legal rationale to see whether it was “appropriate or necessary” for the Environmental Protection Agency to limit mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants," Amena Saiyid reports for Bloomberg Law. "The Trump administration’s EPA concluded May 22 the mercury and air toxics standards, known as MATS, which were set in 2012 and met subsequently by the power sector, weren’t justified. It reached this decision by using the same health benefits and compliance estimates used in 2012 to set the standards."

Only 301 oil and gas rigs were drilling in the U.S. last week, the fewest since national records have been kept

Fewer rigs are drilling for oil and gas in the United States than at any time since national records started being kept in 1940, energy-service firm Baker Hughes Co. reports.

The count fell by 17 to 301 in the week ended Friday, May 29. "That was 683 rigs, or 69 percent, below this time last year and was the fourth week in a row the U.S. count fell to a fresh record low," reports Scott DiSavino of Reuters. "For the month, the U.S. rigs dropped by 164, its third monthly decline in a row."

DiSavino notes that energy companies cut back on new drilling "after global coronavirus lockdowns caused energy prices and demand to collapse." Some active rigs have been idled, the Houston Chronicle reports. The price plunge has made some production uneconomical, and oil companies are running short of lack of storage space for crude oil and petroleum products.

Rural counties at both extremes of infection rates in May

New covid-19 cases in May (Daily Yonder map; click on the image to enlarge it; click here for the interactive version.)

Non-metropolitan counties had some of the highest and lowest covid-19 infection rates in the nation in May, according to a new Daily Yonder analysis of USA Facts data.

"On one hand, 352 rural counties reported no cases of covid-19 infections in May. That number includes 171 rural counties that have never had a case of covid-19, plus another 181 counties that reported no new cases in May but had cases previously," Tim Marema and Bill Bishop report for The Daily Yonder. "Another 500 rural counties reported five or fewer new cases of covid-19 in May."

Read more here for a regional analysis and an interactive map with county-level data.

Pandemic stress could prompt spike in rural mental health problems and suicides; see county-level estimates

Estimated additional deaths of despair between 2020-2029 (Click the image to enlarge it)

Mental health issues and deaths of despair, or those caused by depression-related suicide or substance abuse, have been increasing over the past decade, but stress from the pandemic could cause a spike in such deaths, according to a recent paper by the Well Being Trust, a mental health and substance abuse research nonprofit, and the Robert Graham Center, a primary care research organization affiliated with the American Academy of Family Physicians.

An increase in deaths of despair could disproportionately affect rural residents, who are at a higher risk of such deaths. Racial and ethnic minorities and people with lower incomes are also at higher risk, especially those with more than one risk factor.

The paper considers nine possible future scenarios, including ones with quick economic recovery, slow economic recovery, and somewhere in between, along with other factors. The fastest recovery could result in an additional 27,644 deaths of despair, and the slowest recovery could lead to an additional 154,037 deaths of despair, according to the paper.

The authors suggest ways to mitigate the increase in deaths of despair, including finding ways to decrease social isolation. Read more here.

Agricultural economists to discuss pandemic's impact on the agricultural economy in webinar at 2:30 ET Thursday

As part of the University of Kentucky's Cafe Conversations series, three agricultural economists will discuss how the covid-19 pandemic is affecting the agricultural economy in a free webinar on Thursday, June 4. The webinar will begin at 2:30 p.m. ET and will likely be less than an hour long. Click here to register.

The featured panelists will be Will Snell, Kenny Burdine, and Tim Woods. Snell's expertise lies in tobacco economics, ag policy, and trade. Burdine's focus is on livestock economics and price risk management. Woods' speciality is horticulture, food business development, farm entrepreneurship, and wholesale food supply chains.

The webinar will take place on Zoom, and preregistration is required. A free recording will be available afterward on the university's College of Agriculture, Food and Environment website.

76 journalists attacked covering riots, mostly by police, according to database that tracks threats to journalists

"At least 19 journalists have been arrested, 36 journalists shot at by police with projectiles, and 76 journalists have been assaulted during the period of May 28 through 31 while covering protests throughout the US," Justin Boggs reports for Scripps. "Of the 76 reported assaults on journalists, 80% were by police, either through physical encounters or being shot at" with non-lethal rounds.

The figures have been compiled by U.S. Freedom Tracker, which maintains a database of threats to the news media's right to report. That includes physical attacks, damage to equipment, denials of access, subpoenas or legal orders, arrests, and "chilling statements". Though most of the threats and violence against journalists covering the riots has been urban, the database is one to watch, and often lists rural journalists.

"The group said on Monday that it generally documents 100 to 150 'press freedom violations' per year in the US. In just four days, that number is well over 100," Boggs reports. That figure could increase in coming days as the group investigates other incidents.

Rural counties with covid-19 outbreaks and meatpacking plants have some of the highest infection rates in the US

Infection rate per 100,000; white dots are meatpacking plants
(Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version)

Most of the rural counties with the highest covid-19 infection rates are home to meatpacking plants where workers have been sickened by the disease. Such rural counties, which have some of the highest infection rates nationwide, have an average infection rate an average of five times higher than other rural counties, according to a data analysis by The Daily Yonder and the Food & Environment Reporting Network.

"Rural counties with covid-19 cases linked to meatpacking plants have an average infection rate of nearly 1,100 per 100,000, according to the analysis of data on covid-19 cases and deaths, Leah Douglas and Tim Marema report for the Yonder. "The data used in the analysis was from USA Facts. In rural counties without meatpacking plant-linked outbreaks, the average infection rate is only 209 cases per 100,000."

Click here for more data from the analysis, including an interactive county-level map, county rankings, and more.

Meatpacking production is almost back at normal capacity, but some lawmakers and labor advocates say protections for workers are still lacking, Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture.

Study: covid-19 significantly worse among smokers

People who smoke are more likely to contract covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and more likely to have a severe case than non-smokers, according to a newly published analysis by University of California San Francisco scientists. That includes people who use e-cigarettes.

That has ominous implications for rural areas, where smoking rates are higher.

In a meta-analysis of recent studies about 11,590 covid-19 patients, the researchers found that current and former smokers were nearly twice as likely to see advanced progression of the disease, and more likely to die from it. "Smoking and e-cigarette use increase risk and severity of pulmonary infections because of damage to upper airways and a decrease in pulmonary immune function," according to the paper.

The authors recommend that physicians and public health officials collect more data on smoking and create smoking cessation initiatives to help blunt the impact of the pandemic.

Supreme Court lets states regulate church gatherings in pandemic; White House waters down CDC guidelines

Churches continue to serve as a legal and regulatory battleground during the pandemic as concerns over free speech and public health collide.

The Supreme Court ruledFriday that states still retain some power to regulate how many people are allowed to gather in churches during a pandemic, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the court's liberal minority in a 5-4 vote, Adam Liptak reports for The New York Times.

South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, Calif., sued to block the state from enforcing restrictions on attendance at religious services, alleging that their freedom of speech was being violated. However, Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that churches were not being unfairly singled out since non-essential secular gatherings have also been restricted, Liptak reports.

"The court’s ruling was its first attempt to balance the public health crisis against the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom," Liptak reports. "And it expanded the Supreme Court’s engagement with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, after rulings on voting in Wisconsin and prisons in Texas and Ohio."

Meanwhile, last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed language from its pandemic guidelines for faith communities that had encouraged them to limit or eschew singing since it can spread the coronavirus, Lena Sun and Josh Dawsey report for The Washington Post.

The guide was initially released on Friday, May 22, but it was altered over the weekend to exclude language about choirs, apparently because the White House had not approved it, Bill Chappell reports for NPR. An anonymous federal official told NPR that the CDC "posted the wrong version of the guidance" and that the one "currently up on the website is the version cleared by the White House."

"The altered guidance also deleted a reference to 'shared cups' among items, including hymnals and worship rugs, that should not be shared," Sun and Josh Dawsey report. "The updated guidelines also added language that said the guidance 'is not intended to infringe on rights protected by the First Amendment'."

Churches have been the source for multiple local outbreaks in rural areas. "There is probably no better way to aerosolize the virus than singing," Kevin Kavanagh told The Rural Blog. "Close contact, indoor closed quarters plus singing is a set-up for a disaster." Kavanagh is a retired physician in Somerset, Ky., and chair of Health Watch USA.

Critics say small businesses, some small rural lenders, left out of Paycheck Protection Plan aid

Though Congress has provided more than $600 billion in forgivable loans for small businesses who retain their employees during the pandemic, critics say rural entrepreneurs are being left out.

"A May 8 report by the Small Business Administration’s inspector general found that the SBA failed to follow congressional direction to prioritize small businesses in underserved and rural markets in the original" Paycheck Protection Program, April Simpson reports for Stateline. "And because the SBA did not collect demographic data on those borrowers, the agency doesn’t know how much money went to rural, minority and women-owned businesses."

An online survey by the National Main Street Center found that fewer small rural businesses applied for or received PPP aid than their urban counterparts. "Of 631 respondents in 43 states, the vast majority employ fewer than 20 people," Simpson reports. "The survey found that in communities of fewer than 50,000 people, 76 percent of businesses applied, compared with 89% in places with larger populations. And 45% of small business applications in smaller areas were approved, compared with 59% in larger ones."

Critics say many rural business owners don't have the banking relationships necessary to take advantage of the PPP, Simpson reports. In May, Ines Polonius, CEO of Arkansas-based small-business lender Communities Unlimited told members of a House small business subcommittee that the PPP failed to help rural businesses as the "direct result of decades of bank disinvestment from rural communities across the country."

Responding to the criticism, the SBA and the Treasury Department announced last week "they would set aside $10 billion in funding for the Paycheck Protection Program to be lent exclusively to Community Development Financial Institutions, which lend to rural, minority and under-served groups," Simpson reports.

However, Vandell Hampton Jr., CEO of True Access Capital, said many small CDFIs like his can't participate in the PPP, Simpson reports: "Smaller lenders don’t have the capital to lend and wait to be reimbursed, nor do they have the capacity to quickly process loan applications, Hampton said. Instead, grant money to support smaller institutions, urban or rural, would have been more effective, he said."

Rural Kentucky writer blames Trump, toxic masculinity, for many red state residents' dislike of wearing masks

Teri Carter

When Kentucky slowly began to reopen businesses a few weeks ago, Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, asked all Kentuckians to wear masks in public spaces. But many refused, seeming to view the notion as weak or foolish.

The decision to wear a mask or not has become a cultural and political flash point in Kentucky and many other red states, rural Kentuckian Teri Carter writes in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

President Trump has been a poor role model by not wearing a mask or following social distancing protocols at multiple public appearances, Carter writes, behavior she believes is driven by toxic masculinity.

Carter correlates Trump's refusal to wear a mask with rising pandemic rates in red states: "Infection counts are rising in Alabama, and Mississippi, Utah, Wisconsin, South Carolina and Arizona all set records for daily case totals Friday. Not coincidentally, those are all states where, like Kentucky, Trump remains popular."

"In red states such as Kentucky, where allegiance to Trump so often trumps all else, I pray we don’t see a spike in sickness and death simply because wearing a mask in Trump country has been deemed 'weak' and 'unmanly' by the example of the president himself," Carter writes.

Current unrest underlines necessity of allowing journalists to do their jobs, retired editor-publisher in S.D. writes

Timothy Waltner

President Trump bears indirect responsibility in attacks on the press in recent days during protests over the death of of African-American George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police (and, to a lesser extent, over the death of Breonna Taylor during a botched police raid in Louisville), writes retired rural publisher and editor Timothy Waltner, the First Amendment Committee chair at the South Dakota Newspaper Association.

Law enforcement officials have arrested, tear-gassed or shot at journalists with non-lethal rounds, sometimes even after the journalists had identified themselves as the press. 

"You can’t directly link the president’s verbal attacks on the press with the physical attacks we’ve seen in recent days; he did not tell people to do that. But the words President Trump uses and the attitude he promotes have impact," Waltner writes. "Those sentiments and the constant barrage of those verbal attacks encourage, empower and enable the mistrust of journalists. Journalists have thick skin and will continue to do their jobs. But I fear for our culture, our social fabric and our democracy." Read more here.

Our nominee for best 2020 high-school graduation editorial

By Laurie Ezzell Brown
The Canadian (Tex.) Record

In my own version of social isolation, I’ve spent as many free hours as possible studying the birds and squirrels and hummingbirds that inhabit my backyard, thinking perhaps I could learn something of solitude.

Lured by a plentiful supply of seeds and a frequently-refilled bird bath, they have all neatly assembled a life there, complete with its own pecking order and its own social justice system.

These backyard denizens take little note of any human, unless one is foolish enough to invade their space. I made that mistake recently, climbing a ladder to the roof in order to replace a wind-blown vent cap. Truly, hell hath no fury like a grackle defending its nest. I made my repairs, as quickly as the steeply-pitched, hot metal rooftop allowed, and ceded the territory back to black fury.

One weekend, John and I decided to remove a couple of dead tree branches. Hours later, and too many trips to the city tree pile to count, we were still sawing and loading and hauling. That evening, having cleared a small forest and expended every drop of energy we possessed between us, we idled on the back patio, tracking the well-traveled path of the squirrel family in residence.

The hunter/gatherer of the bunch made frequent trips down one tree trunk, sprinting the length of the picket fence, and scrambling up the third mock pear tree and into the branches, where he leapt from one to another with great assurance and ease, and with no small measure of panache. Up to the rooftop, then quickly back down, he retreated along the same route he had just navigated. He sent the songbirds at the feeder scattering and briefly confronted the fat doves perched atop the pickets as they scanned the ground, waiting for seeds to fall.

Wings flapped, feathers flew, the squirrel chattered as the birds pecked. A cease-fire treaty was reached, if not an accord. On went the bushy-tailed rodent, scrambling up the trunk of the old elm tree and launching into the branches, darting and dancing from one to another, until he skidded—claws scraping—to a sudden stop.

Where is that branch I’ve climbed, lo these many years? The one that led heavenward, back to my nest, my sanctuary? He retraced his steps, searching for an alternate route, a detour. There was none to be found. Down to the sun-scorched carport roof, where he skittered and scratched, not daring to stop. Alas, there was no escape. He ascended again, returning to his familiar path, hoping it had all been some terrible mistake.

Finally, the decision was unavoidable. He eyed the supple, still-green branch several feet away, accelerated and leapt, flying through the now-empty air and reaching—grasping—for that thin lifeline. His sudden weight bowed the branch. As it bent, he lost his purchase and slid, still clutching, until the branch suddenly sprang back. Propelled through the air, he reached—with all his small might—for the rung above, and lifted himself to safety.

I’ve not seen the squirrel take that same path since, but he did survive and seems unscarred by the grave danger he momentarily faced.

It made me think of how we, too, have been dislodged lately. Confronted by what Canadian High School Salutatorian Melody Hood referred to as “an evil protein capsid with destructive genetic material,” we have been forced to abandon our well-worn routes and are finding new patterns and approaches to old tasks, facing unknown perils and feeling that fleeting exhilaration when we succeed at something we once feared. Testing ourselves. Realizing we can and will survive—or at least, many of us will.

Our students and parents and teachers and school staff and administrators—removed from the familiar and safe and known—have leapt and risked falling, rebounded and soared higher, and found new ways to cross the cavernous void of time and space that seems always to loom ahead. They have relied on each other in ways they had not known they could. They have discovered strength and knowledge within themselves, and risked going it alone. They have worked harder, learned more, exceeded their grasp, and prevailed. Talk about class.

Yes, you are all the Class of 2020. And however much we hope to resume some semblance of normal next year, we no longer doubt our ability to meet and surmount the challenges ahead.