Twice in three weeks, W.Va. weekly warns it's in trouble

The Examiner's June 2 front page

The latest newspaper to (purposely) print a front page without any news is the Moorefield Examiner of Hardy County, West Virginia. Or maybe there was news: about itself. Last week's edition was the second in three weeks to warn the county's 14,000 residents that the weekly is at risk.

In a long editorial column on May 19, headlined "You'll miss us," Publisher Hannah Heishman said that reading social-media discussion about a local controversy made her realize that "People in Hardy County do not realize the newspaper is a valid, formal source of information." After a bit of a primer about the civic role of newspapers ("helping keep your government honest by ensuring you know what they're doing"), the virtues of local ownership ("zero reason not to tell the truth about what we see and hear"), and debunking various myths about journalism, Heishman gave readers the bottom line: "Fewer people read the paper, so fewer people advertise; less money comes in; I can't pay staff, postage or printing, so the paper gets smaller, and the cycle repeats until we close. Once we close, there is no one behind us. No one. No local or county government coverage. . . . No youth or school sports. No Hardy-specific obituaries." Papers in other counties "can't afford to cover us any more than we can afford to cover them."

Hardy County (Wikipedia map)

Ending her bit of a rant, Heishman wrote: "Here's the thing: We can't make you care. We can't make you decide to read a local newspaper, so you really know what's actually happening in your community . . . We cover things so you don't have to attend every government meeting, to save you time and protect you from rumors, actual lies and the he said, she said -- and you still won't engage until it's too late, and then you insult us with half-assed excuses about how the paper is worthless trash and you 'don't read that junk,' while blaming us: 'Why didn't you tell us?' We did. You didn't care; didn't believe us; weren't paying attention. You'll miss us when we're gone."

Explaining the June 2 edition, Heishman wrote, "Front-page stories are elsewhere in the paper and there will be a paper next week. If we all don’t start caring and enabling local news, though, the future is grim, and not far off — not just in Moorefield, but for any locally owned, community newspaper." After the paper came out, she told Don Smith of the West Virginia Press Association, “We are taken for granted. . . . We made them think about it today. We have gotten calls and emails about the newspaper, about subscribing and advertising. They care today, but how will they feel in six weeks?”

Bill to expand background checks for gun purchases stalls, more on the overall politics of gun control than any policy

UPDATE, June 10: Sen. John Cornyn of Texas has dropped out of negotiations, reducing chances that there will be an agreement, Laura Litvan reports for Bloomberg.

"Senators said they are struggling to find a bipartisan agreement on expanding background checks for gun sales after weeks of talks, with many Republicans wary of backing new efforts to regulate firearms," Kristina Peterson reports for The Wall Street Journal. "A handful of Senate Democrats and Republicans have been working to strike a deal on an expansion of background checks that could garner the 60 votes needed for a bill to advance in the Senate. Lawmakers said they were taking a pragmatic approach, trying to reach a narrower agreement than the legislation that passed the House in March that would expand background checks to nearly all gun sales, aimed at flagging people with criminal or mental-health histories that disqualify them from gun ownership."

The discussions have centered on expanding background checks to all commercial sales. Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., introduced legislation in 2013 that would have mandated such, but the Senate voted it down in a close vote. Toomey told Peterson he was skeptical that nine other Republican votes could be found in the Senate for the new bill.

"The biggest sticking point isn’t a policy detail, but the contentious political nature of any legislation touching on gun restrictions, according to a person familiar with the discussions," Peterson reports. "Lawmakers said they were also discussing other gun-related legislation, including safe-storage measures and efforts to pass red-flag laws aimed at allowing courts to temporarily take guns from people deemed dangerous."

15 states passed 40% rural full-vaccination threshold as of Tuesday, up from seven states two weeks ago

Rural/urban vaccination rates as of June 7, compared to national average and adjusted to account for vaccinations not assigned to specific counties. Map by The Daily Yonder; click the image to enlarge it or here for the interactive version.

As of Tuesday, 15 states had fully vaccinated more than 40 percent of their rural residents, surpassing the nationwide metropolitan vaccination average. Two weeks ago, only seven states had done so. 

"Nationally, 32.5% of the 46 million residents who live in nonmetropolitan counties are completely vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and selected state health departments," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. The rural-urban vaccination gap is still hovering around 7.5 percentage points. The trend is difficult to pinpoint because the Yonder included county-level data from Texas and Hawaii in this week's report for the first time. A recent Harvard University study and interactive tool has more insight on the rural-urban gap.

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

'Waters of the U.S.' definition, widened under Obama and narrowed under Trump, in line for expansion under Biden

"The Biden administration has plans to roll out a new proposal for federal clean-water regulations, working to undo moves by the Trump administration that had eased permit requirements for landowners," Gabriel Rubin and Katy Ferek report for The Wall Street Journal. "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday said it plans to start a regulatory process alongside the Justice Department to revise a Trump administration rule that the Biden administration says has reduced clean-water protections. A new rule would restore protections put in place by prior administrations, with a special emphasis on projects in arid Western states like New Mexico and Arizona."

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement, “We are committed to establishing a durable definition of ‘waters of the United States’ based on Supreme Court precedent and drawing from the lessons learned from the current and previous regulations.” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regulators said "the Trump-era EPA rule has led to a 25 percentage-point reduction in 'determinations of waters that would otherwise be afforded protection,'" Rubin and Ferek report.

The Trump administration narrowed the definition of the term in the Clean Water Act in all but one state in June 2020, saying the new rules were clearer and would save landowners time and money. "The Trump rule rescinded an Obama-era one that expanded federal oversight to protect wildlife and the country’s drinking-water supply from industrial runoff and pollution in 2015," Rubin and Ferek report. "The expansion meant more landowners and developers needed to apply for permits. It also put them at greater risk of steep fines for polluting the country’s smaller waterways. Farmers, property developers, chemical manufacturers and oil-and-gas producers had fought the expansion, saying it inappropriately curtailed property owners’ rights."

UPDATE: American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall issued a statement saying that the nation's main agriculture lobbying group was "extremely disappointed" to do away with a rule that he said "brought clarity" to farmers and ranchers, Todd Neeley of Progressive Farmer reports.

Developers officially scrap Keystone XL pipeline project

Wikipedia map

TC Energy, the firm behind the Keystone XL pipeline, officially scrapped the project on Wednesday, months after President Biden revoked a cross-border permit for the controversial pipeline and more than a decade after political wrangling over its fate began," Brady Dennis and Steven Mufson report for The Washington Post. "The pipeline, which would have stretched from Alberta’s boreal forests to the refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast, became the center of a broader controversy over climate change, pipeline safety, eminent domain and jobs. Those same concerns have spawned similar battles to stop pipelines in states including Montana, Minnesota and Virginia, part of an effort to keep fossil fuels in the ground."

Anti-pipeline activists and many Democratic lawmakers lauded the news; one activist told the Post that it was a sign that protests against "Big Oil" work. Republican officials and petroleum industry officials criticized Biden for rescinding the pipeline's border permit on his first day in office, saying he essentially guaranteed the death of a project that would have provided thousands of construction jobs. "However, with most of the pipeline construction complete, including the fully operating southern leg, relatively few jobs are still at stake," the Post notes.

Public-health experts warn against conservatives' efforts to get local officials to shutter syringe-exchange programs

A large crowd watched commissioners in Scott County, Indiana, vote last week to end their rural county's syringe exchange by the end of the year, despite objections from public-health experts. (Photo from Louisville Courier Journal)

"Recent efforts to shutter needle exchanges in Republican-led areas could indicate renewed GOP backlash to the controversial programs aimed at preventing outbreaks of HIV and hepatitis, public health experts are increasingly warning," Dan Goldberg reports for Politico. "The pushback against needle exchanges, which allow people using drugs to receive clean syringes without fear of arrest, is happening at a perilous moment for the nation’s long-running drug epidemic. Overdose deaths over the past year have climbed to record levels, exacerbated by a pandemic that has pushed the drug crisis from the headlines. HIV outbreaks spurred by use of injectable drugs are also plaguing major American cities, and rates of hepatitis, which often spreads through injection drug use, were climbing before the Covid-19 pandemic."

Many Republican lawmakers say such "harm reduction programs" encourage addiction, but years of studies show they reduce infectious disease transmission rates and do not promote drug use. "Their opposition softened in the last decade as the opioid epidemic devastated communities and Trump pledged to defeat the crisis," Goldberg reports. "But public-health experts fear the country is witnessing the start of a broader Republican rebellion against these programs — one that’s partly fueled by anti-science backlash to Covid restrictions."

In Southern Indiana, Scott County commissioners voted 2-1 this month to close a syringe exchange that quelled an internationally recognized rural HIV outbreak in 2016. Commissioner Mike Jones said, “I know people who are alcoholics, and I don’t buy them a bottle of whiskey. And I know people who want to kill themselves, and I don't buy them a bullet for their gun.”

"Commissioners rejected pleas of local law enforcement, state officials and former Trump administration Surgeon General Jerome Adams in voting to shutter the exchange," reports Chris Kenning of the Louisville Courier Journal. "The move comes amid a nationwide increase in drug overdoses attributed to the pandemic, leading supporters to argue there could scarcely be a worse time to abandon the harm-reduction program serving a one-time epicenter of the U.S. opioid crisis."

Outreach appears needed to help many rural poor learn about the newly expanded child tax credit, paid monthly

The expansion of the child tax credit by President Biden and Democrats in Congress is the first time the federal government has tried to reduce child poverty through widely available direct payments. It could cut child poverty in half, but only if the poorest families can access it. That poses a problem. 

"It’s clear that delivering on that assurance is going to demand a complex, multi-agency effort quite unlike anything the federal government has done before," Chabeli Carrazana reports for The 19th, a newsroom that focuses on women. "To get there, the administration has to devise a plan to reach the nation’s lowest wage earners, who qualify for the money for the first time. It has to reach the people who don’t pay income taxes and aren’t known to the Internal Revenue Service. It has to reach communities that don’t have permanent addresses or contact information. It has to reach undocumented folks whose children now qualify for the money."

The expansion increased the amount per child and made the payments monthly instead of annual, with the filing of tax returns. It also made the credit fully available for the first time to the lowest-wage families, who don't pay income taxes, Carrazana reports.

"But many don’t know the expansion happened. Even if they do, information about what they have to do to get it is still scarce. Many lack access to a computer or don’t have the digital literacy to fill out the form and provide the necessary paperwork. Making a mistake is costly — it could bar them from getting the credit for two or 10 years, depending on whether the mistake was careless or intentional. "The work of finding those people, educating them and helping them through the process is going to fall on hundreds of community organizations who are taking on the task — sometimes as volunteers. And the timeline to do it is short: The first monthly checks under the expanded credit will begin rolling out on July 15."

Another problem, especially in rural areas, is that the portal can't be viewed on a smartphone. Rural residents who have internet access, especially the poor, are more likely to access it via a smartphone.

USDA report: Rural and urban non-metro counties saw more dollar stores and fewer grocery stores from 1990 to 2015

Rural residents have faced a host of challenges in accessing groceries, according to a new report about rural food retailing from 1990 to 2015 by the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service. One issue is the trend of large chain stores replacing small independents. Higher travel costs to access food are another problem, especially for residents in high-poverty areas with shrinking populations. Here are some other findings as of 2015, the most recent data available:

• 23 U.S. counties were left without any food retailers; all were outside metropolitan areas.
• 44 counties had no grocery; 40 were rural nonmetro and four were urban non-metro (counties with an urban population of 2,500 or more).
• 41 non-metro counties had one food retailer and 115 non-metro counties had one grocery.
• The median non-metro county had 16 food retailers and seven grocery stores.
• Grocery stores were the most prevalent food retailer in non-metro counties. The next-most prevalent, in order, were convenience stores, specialty food stores, dollar stores, and supercenters.
• Single-location grocery stores were more prevalent than chain stores, but had lower average sales and employment than chain stores.

And here are some trends over the 25 years covered by the report:

• Dollar stores and supercenters were the only types of food retailers whose rural numbers increased; the counts of grocery stores and convenience stores peaked in 2009 and have been declining since then, and the number of specialty food stores has been falling since its 2011 peak. 
• The percentage of rural non-metro counties with fewer than eight food retailers per 10,000 people increased from 11% in 1990 to 27% in 2015. 
• The number of food retailers per capita decreased by 19 percent in rural non-metro counties.
• The percentage of rural non-metro counties with no food retailers increased from 1% to 3%.
• The median number of grocery stores per capita decreased by 40% for rural and urban non-metro counties.

Former ag secretary says he was 'the most assaulted Cabinet member in history,' by food when it became issue

Dan Glickman, who was a Kansas congressman
before becoming U.S. secretary of agriculture,
checked out a wheat field. (Photo via Politico)

Why would the secretary of agriculture be "the most assaulted Cabinet member in history," as Dan Glickman, who held the office under Bill Clinton, writes in Politico Magazine? Because food is easy to throw.

"I have never heard of any past agriculture secretaries being subjected to the same volume of projectiles as I was during my time at USDA. To my knowledge nobody has had any memory of a Cabinet member who came close to my record," writes Glickman, a congressman before and a movie-industry lobbyist after his time at the Agriculture Department, from 1995 to early 2001. 

At the time, "There was a large debate about organic food. Activist groups were energized on food issues, and for whatever reason, I bore the brunt of it," Glickman writes. "I had all sorts of things tossed at me . . . organic seeds by naked men and women in Rome, bison guts in Montana and tofu pies in D.C. It turns out people really care about their food. In a way, I think my career was a preview of the incivility that would eventually engulf our politics; only instead of barrages of hateful tweets and public harassment, I got food thrown in my face."

The job is less risky now, at least in a physical sense. "In the years that followed my tenure at USDA, Cabinet members’ security increased, so I’m sure Cabinet members, including the Agriculture secretary, are subject to much less of these kinds of attacks now."

Glickman is a fellow of the Bipartisan Policy Center. His entertaining piece is excerpted from his new book, Laughing at Myself: My Education in Congress, on the Farm, and at the Movies.

Rural coronavirus infections and deaths are lowest in a year

New coronavirus infections, in ranges by county, May 30-June 5
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version

New coronavirus infections and Covid-19 deaths in rural America have fallen to their lowest levels in a year during the week of May 30-June 5. "The total number of new cases in non-metropolitan counties dropped by about 25 percent, from 21,179 two weeks ago to 15,766 last week. During the same period, the number of Covid-related deaths in rural counties dropped by more than a third, from 849 to 538," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. "Metropolitan counties saw similar declines."

The number of rural counties in the red zone (with 100 or more infections per 100,000 residents) likewise hit its lowest level in at least a year. "Last week only 119 rural counties were on the red-zone list," Murphy and Marema report. "At the height of the pandemic’s surge in January, 95% of the nation’s 1,976 nonmetropolitan counties were in the red zone. The Daily Yonder began tracking red-zone counties in the first week of June last year, when 138 counties were on the list.

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

Study finds rural seniors less likely than urban ones to follow Covid-19 prevention advice, especially social distancing

Rural adults 65 and older were less compliant than their urban peers when it came to following some of the suggested strategies to slow the spread of the coronavirus, especially social distancing.

So says a recent study published in The Journal of Rural Health, which looked at whether "community dwelling" seniors (those not living in assisted living, nursing homes or other congregate settings) had adopted preventive measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slow the spread of the virus.

Following the CDC's advice is especially important for seniors because they have a higher risk of dying from Covid-19 if they get it. 

The study researchers used self-reported data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, conducted from June to October 2020, which asked about eight different risk-mitigation behaviors. The survey included nearly 3,000 community-dwelling urban and rural seniors.  

The researchers found that seniors' compliance with each of the eight behaviors to limit the spread of Covid-19 was high, but rural seniors were less likely to report compliance on five: social distancing, limiting gatherings, avoiding restaurants and bars, not touching their faces, and avoiding contact with those outside their households. 

However, after the data were adjusted for demographic characteristics, only maintaining a six-foot distance remained lower among rural seniors to a statistically significant degree. There were no rural-urban differences when it came to mask wearing, handwashing and limiting shopping.

Still, the researchers said their findings suggested the need for rural-specific messaging when it comes to such public-health emergencies.

Gap in rural and urban death rates tripled from 2009 to 2019

Mortality trends by area type (graph from JAMA study)

"The gap between the death rates of rural and urban U.S. residents tripled over the past two decades as city-dwellers enjoyed robust health improvement and drugs and disease pervaded the countryside," Carey Goldberg reports for Bloomberg. "Death rates dropped in all groups except middle-aged rural white and Native American people, but fell most in cities."

That's according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that examined age-adjusted all-cause mortality in the U.S. from 2009 to 2019. Though overall mortality rates dropped in rural, suburban and urban areas, suburban and urban death rates fell much further. The researchers classified rurality according to the U.S. Census Bureau definition. 

"The numbers add to disturbing findings in recent years that life expectancy has actually dropped among some Americans, particularly white people with less education, fueled largely by 'deaths of despair' from substance use or suicide," Goldberg reports. 

The trend is "a ripple effect from the economic downturn in rural areas that’s now being manifested as a public health crisis," senior author and Boston heart specialist Haider Warraich told Goldberg. The data, combined with other studies, show chronic diseases, substance use, poor nutrition, lack of exercise, rural hospital closures, and lack of access to quality medical care all contribute to the phenomenon.

Rural folks and conservatives less likely to get coronavirus vaccinations, analysis by congressional districts shows

Percentage of vaccinated population (left) compared to 2020 presidential election margins by Congressional district (Harvard University and Daily Kos maps adapted by The Rural Blog; click the image to enlarge them. The Harvard analysis, linked below, has an interactive version.)

Conservative—and disproportionately rural—Americans are more likely to remain unvaccinated against the coronavirus, and the divide is growing starker. 

"All but one of the 39 congressional districts where at least 60 percent of residents have received a coronavirus shot are represented by Democrats, according to a Harvard University analysis that presents one of the most detailed looks yet at the partisan split behind the nation’s diverging vaccination drive," Dan Goldberg and Alice Ollstein report for Politico. "By contrast, Republicans represent all but two of the 30 districts where fewer than one-third of residents have received a shot."

The 14 least least-vaccinated districts are all Republican and rural (or have a rural population of at least 40%). Missouri, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates of any state, took the bottom four spots.

The gap stems partly from ideological sentiment, but also access issues. "House members representing districts with low vaccination rates and public health experts, discussing their efforts to reach the unvaccinated, described what essentially has become two distinct conversations," Goldberg and Ollstein report. "One is aimed at chipping away at vaccine hesitancy among conservative white Republicans, while the other is centered around reducing socioeconomic barriers to vaccination for poorer populations and communities of color."

Rural/urban vaccination rates as of May 23, compared to national average. Rates are adjusted to account for vaccinations not assigned to specific counties. Map by The Daily Yonder; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

Four-part webinar series on rural-urban divide starts tonight

A free, four-part webinar series about the rural-urban divide kicks off tonight from 7 to 8 p.m. ET. Register here. From the description: 

The rural-urban divide is deep, it’s widespread, and it’s getting worse. Liberal people from cities and suburbs think most rural folks are ignorant, racist, stuck in the past, their communities heading towards oblivion. Many in the countryside view urban people, academics, and the government as elitist, contemptuous of rural ways, and dismissive of the people living there. While race and racial resentment play major roles in this polarization, the divide between urban and rural is perhaps the most poorly understood component of our divisions. And it’s killing us, enabling the richest people and biggest corporations to dominate our democracy while the great majority of us fight amongst ourselves. How did we get here, and how do we begin to overcome the divide? More to the point, what role has those who espouse a fair and just world played in exacerbating the divide, and what must we do differently?

Future Generations University, LiKEN Knowledge, and Appalachian Voices are hosting the webinar series and say they'll discuss:

• Six underlying causes of the divide and how they reinforce each other
• How the neglect of rural development has enabled the divide and how effective, bottom-up rural development strategies can help reverse it
• Better, more accurate ways of understanding rural perspectives on regulations, the environment, and the role of government
• Much better ways to talk about and talk to rural communities
• Other tools and strategies for overcoming the divide

Most co-ops can't get pandemic relief for small businesses

The Small Business Administration has provided millions in pandemic aid to small businesses and organizations through initiatives such as the Paycheck Protection Program, the Community Navigator Pilot program and more, but cooperatives are largely excluded from accessing it because of pre-pandemic SBA policies, Lydia DePillis reports for ProPublica. 

"In 2018, Congress passed the Main Street Employee Ownership Act as part of a defense authorization bill, pushing the agency to open its flagship 7(a) loan program to co-ops. Even as the SBA’s then-administrator Linda McMahon expressed support for the concept, Trump administration SBA officials did not change key policies that would have facilitated widespread access. They also failed to implement other parts of the new law, such as a requirement to start a program charged with promoting employee ownership," DePillis reports. "The result: Cooperative businesses are still largely cut out of the mainstream financial system that funds new enterprises, making it extremely difficult for them to scale up." Read more here.

Demand from China boosts American farm economy

Financial Times graphs

Donald Trump’s trade war with China made farmers more dependent on government payments, "but China is now at the heart of a reversal in farmers’ fortunes, as booming exports and soaring food prices fuel a recovery in the U.S. agricultural economy," Aime Williams reports for the Financial Times.

"The U.S. is on course to ship a record $37.2 billion worth of farm goods to China this year, led by sales of soybeans, corn, tree nuts, beef, wheat and poultry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has forecast." That's 23 percent of total U.S. agricultural exports, which USDA estimates will be $164 billion. More Chinese demand, combined with low stocks of corn and soybeans caused by drought in Brazil, "have driven a surge in global food prices, providing a further boost for American farmers."

China imported 9.6 million tons of soybeans in May, a 29% increase from April's 7.4 million tons, Reuters reports.

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GOP-run states push back at national Democratic control with bills reflecting values, priorities of rural Trump voters

Republican governors and state legislatures are advancing one of the most conservative agendas seen in years, apparently in response to Democratic control of Congress and the White House, Ron Brownstein reports for The Atlantic. The fallout is not only changing the daily lives of red-state residents, but widening the partisan gulf (or at least illustrating the trend).

"Republican legislators and governors have operated as if they were programming a prime-time lineup at Fox News," Brownstein writes. "They have focused far less on the small-government, limited-spending, and anti-tax policies that once defined the GOP than on an array of hot-button social issues, such as abortion, guns, and limits on public protest, that reflect the cultural and racial priorities of Trump’s base. GOP legislators appear to be operating more out of fear that Trump’s base of non-college-educated, rural, and evangelical white voters will punish them in primaries if they fail to pursue maximum confrontation against Democrats and liberal constituencies, particularly on issues revolving around culture and race."

Recent high-profile issues include allowing guns to be carried without a permit, banning "critical race theory" from classrooms and abortion restrictions such as protecting fetuses with a heartbeat.

"The other pattern evident in the surge of conservative legislation is the continuing separation of red and blue America," Brownstein writes. "As Biden and the Democrats controlling Congress are advancing an ambitious progressive agenda at the national level, almost all of the red states are responding with what amounts to a collective cry of defiance. On a lengthening list of issues, the rules that govern daily life in red and blue states are diverging—and at an accelerating pace. The chasms are deepening not only between states, but within them, as GOP legislators centered in preponderantly white rural and exurban areas more aggressively annul the policy choices of racially diverse, Democratic-controlled metro centers. Bill by bill, this year’s red-state offensive is measuring the continued unraveling of a country that appears to be unrelentingly pulling apart."

Cyberattacks like one at JBS are a rising threat to America's food supply chain, but federal oversight remains sparse

The cyberattack that temporarily crippled JBS, the nation's top beef processor, came a week and a half after University of Minnesota security analysts warned the Agriculture Department that ransomware could hurt the U.S. food supply more than the coronavirus pandemic has. Experts have been warning about the threat for years, but they have gained little traction.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said cyberattacks were part of food producers' "new reality," but "federal oversight of the industry’s cybersecurity practices remains light, despite years of warnings that an attack could bring consequences ranging from higher grocery prices to contaminated food," Politico's Ryan McCrimmon and Martin Matishak report. "Virtually no mandatory cybersecurity rules govern the millions of food and agriculture businesses that account for about a fifth of the U.S. economy; just voluntary guidelines exist. The two federal agencies overseeing the sector include the USDA, which has faced criticism from Congress for how it secures its own data. And unlike other industries that have formed information-sharing collectives to coordinate their responses to potential cyber threats, the food industry disbanded its group in 2008."

Farmers' and processors' increasing reliance on automation and other high technology makes them more vulnerable to hackers. "In November, the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said in a report that its threat-hunting service had witnessed a ten-fold increase in interactive — or 'hands-on-keyboard' — intrusions affecting the agriculture industry over the previous 10 months. Adam Meyers, the company’s senior vice president of intelligence, said that of the 160 hacking groups or gangs the company tracks, 13 have been identified in targeting agriculture," Politico reports. "A 2018 report from the Department of Homeland Security examined a range of cyber threats facing the industry as it adopts digitized 'precision agriculture,' while the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in April 2016 that agriculture is 'increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks as farmers become more reliant on digitized data.'"

Food supply chain cyberattacks could result in higher meat prices, financial consequences for producers, injury or death of plant workers, and unsafe food being sold to the public, according to the Food Protection and Defense Institute. In public comments to USDA, the group noted that "large parts of the industry rely on decades-old, custom-written software that is essentially impossible to update, along with outdated operating systems like Windows 98," McCrimmon and Matishak report.

Campaign-finance probe of combative Postmaster General Louis DeJoy could put bipartisan postal-reform bill at risk

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy at a House committee hearing
(Pool photo by Tom Williams via The Associated Press)

The Justice Department said last week that the FBI is investigating possible campaign-finance violations by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in his private business before he was hired. That "threatens to fray a fragile bipartisan and cross-industry coalition that supports financial relief legislation for the U.S. Postal Service," reports Jacob Bogage of The Washington Post.

The bill includes a key provision for community newspapers, which would let them send up to half their mailed circulation to non-subscribers in their home counties at the preferential rates the USPS charges for mailing to in-county subscribers. The current limit, more than 100 years old, is 10 percent of annual in-county mailed circulation.

"Congressional and industry officials say his legal position could imperil bills advancing in the House and Senate that would relieve the Postal Service of $44 billion in debt, as well as its annual $5 billion retiree health-care payments," Bogage reports. "Postal legislation has failed on lesser controversies, congressional officials noted. Some House Democrats late last week privately considered dropping their support for the measure in light of the DeJoy investigation, said four people with knowledge of the talks, reasoning that the chamber could advance more aggressive legislation on a party-line vote."

However, that would complicate passage in the Senate, which has a bipartisan bill identical to the House bill that is awaiting a green light from the House Ways and Means Committee to go to the full House. Supporters of the bill worry that partisanship will get in its way. Leo Raymond of Mailers Hub, which serves commercial mailers, told Bogage, “If you’re just going along to get along, if you’re not ardent, this could make you say, ‘Well, I’m not working with this guy.’” On the other side of the coin, Republicans who like DeJoy could balk because President Biden's Justice Department is investigating him.

DeJoy's profile and political pedigree don't help. "The postmaster general may be the closest thing to former President Donald Trump left in the nation’s capital," Will Weissert of The Associated Press writes. "Democrats are particularly worried that he’s purposefully undermining the post office, which is critical to the conduct of elections and is one of the few federal agencies a vast majority of Americans like."

Soon after taking over a year ago, DeJoy made changes to save money that also reduced service levels, including cutting overtime and removing mail-sorting machines. "Mail slowed enough that Democrats worried about an electoral crisis," Weissert notes, but the fears "mostly proved unfounded."

Still, DeJoy's combative nature makes him a target. “I’m not a political appointee,” he told a House committee hearing. “I was selected by a bipartisan Board of Governors and I’d really appreciate if you’d get that straight.” Asked how long would keep the job, he replied, “A long time. Get used to me.”

International report says climate change will likely make invasive insects, plant diseases bigger problem for farmers

Invasive insects and plant diseases already cause nearly $300 billion in annual losses for the world's farmers, but climate change could make that worse by making many areas more hospitable to pests, according to a new report from the International Plant Protection Convention, hosted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 

"Warmer and drier conditions favor disturbances by insects, whereas warmer and wetter conditions favor disturbances from pathogens," said the report. "The same trend is expected for many crop diseases, insect pests, and weeds, with increasing pest risk in most cases. Thus preventive, mitigation, and adaptation measures are needed in the future to reduce the projected increases in pest risk in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry as well as in urban areas and national parks."

For example, global warming will expand the territory for pests like the fall armyworm, which eats corn, sorghum, and other grains, according to the report, Chuck Abbott reports for the Food & Environment Reporting Network.

Colorado drought conditions worsen farmers' suicide rates

Drought map of the United States as of June 1; red areas are in 'Extreme Drought' and maroon areas are in 'Exceptional Drought' (U.S. Drought Monitor map; click the image to enlarge it)

Drought conditions in Colorado are correlated with a rise in farmers' suicide rates over the past decade, according to newly analyzed data, Southwestern NPR affiliate KSJD's Lucas Brady Woods reports for Arizona State University's Cronkite News.

Over the past decade, farmer suicide rates have risen and fallen along with drought conditions in the state, according to data compiled by Colorado-based suicide-prevention group Celebrating Healthy Communities. That's of particular concern right now as much of the Southwest, along with Oregon, some of the Upper Midwest and the Sacramento Valley, are experiencing extreme drought conditions, Woods reports.

Increasing financial stressors over the past decade are also linked to spikes in suicide rates in farming communities, Colorado Agriculture Commissioner Kate Greenberg told Woods. "Greenberg said her department is working with local partners across the state to get more resources to rural areas. What works in a city might not translate to agricultural communities. So, she said, resources such as online training manuals or public service announcements should be written with that in mind. Colorado also maintains a crisis hotline — a free and confidential mental health resource that’s available 24/7," Woods reports. "But as climate change continues to heat up and dry out the West’s farmland, Greenberg said the stress that comes with water scarcity will remain a challenge in keeping agriculture viable, and those who do it mentally well."

Here are some farmer suicide prevention and mental-health resources:

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 (24 hours)
• Crisis Text Line: 741-741 (24 hours)
• Farm Aid farmer hotline: 1-800-327-6243 (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Eastern)
• National Farmers Union Farm Crisis Center
• Suicide warning signs: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Opioid trial update: Distributor trade-group memo shows plan to shift blame for drug epidemic to providers, patients

In 2015, a trade group for major drug distributors planned to shift blame for the opioid epidemic to pharmacists, doctors and their patients. That's according to a memo mentioned in the ongoing trial in West Virginia that aims to hold some of the nation's largest drug distributors (McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health) financially liable for the epidemic.

The memo was "sent to a senior executive at that trade group, the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, that bemoaned 'imbalanced' coverage by reporters at local papers" and offered strategies for shunting the blame elsewhere, Lucas Manfield reports for Mountain State Spotlight.

The prosecutors "have argued that the drug distributors were well aware that they were fueling an epidemic of opioid addiction, but were more concerned with their bottom line than restricting the flow of opioids," Manfield reports. "Meanwhile, defense attorneys have argued that drug distributors are just middlemen and that their actions did not cause the opioid crisis." Though it's unclear whether any of the defendants acted on specific advice in the memo, the prosecutors argued it illustrates the companies' willingness to prioritize profits over patient safety.

The memo is the latest eyebrow-raising document to come up in the trial. Earlier, a prosecutor questioned an executive about emails he got with parody songs calling West Virginians "pillbillies" who lived in "OxyContinville," Courtney Hessler reports for The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington.

Democrat who chairs House Agriculture Committee opposes Biden plan for stricter application of capital-gains taxes

Rep. David Scott, D-Ga.

The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee told President Biden this week that he has "serious concerns" about Biden's proposal to apply capital gains taxes more strictly, saying it "could hurt our family farmers, ranchers and small businesses."

In a letter to Biden, Democratic Rep. David Scott of Georgia defended the "stepped-up basis" used to calculate an heir's tax liability. It is "the practice of assessing assets, including land, at their current value when they’re passed down to heirs rather than the increase since they were originally acquired," Chuck Abbott explains for Successful Farming. "The White House has said it would include an exemption for heirs who keep the farm in operation." That's not enough, Scott told Biden.

"My understanding of the exemptions is that they would just delay the tax liability for those continuing the farming operation until time of sale, which could result in further consolidation in farmland ownership," Scott wrote. "This would make it more difficult for young, beginning, and socially disadvantaged farmers to get into farming."

Abbott notes, "Very few farm families are obliged to pay estate taxes. There is an $11 million per person exclusion from estate taxes at present; it drops to $5 million per person in 2026 but will be indexed for inflation. The White House says the stepped-up basis now in force for calculating capital-gains taxes 'allows the wealthiest Americans to entirely escape tax on their wealth by passing it down to heirs,' exacerbating inequality in America." But Scott called it "a critical tool enabling family farming operations to continue from generation to generation."

Rural vaccination rate lags even farther behind metro areas

Rural/urban vaccination rates compared to national average; rates are adjusted to account for vaccinations not assigned to specific counties. Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

"An additional 361,000 rural Americans completed their Covid-19 vaccinations last week, raising the rural vaccination rate to 31.1 percent," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. The metropolitan rate is about 8 points higher.

The gap between the rural and urban vaccination rates is widening. Last week the rural percentage grew 1 point over the week before, compared to a metro rate increase of 1.8 points. "Two weeks ago, the gap between the higher metropolitan rate and the rural rate was 7.2 percentage points. Last week, the gap between the metro and rural vaccination rates grew to 8 percentage points," Murphy and Marema report.

Click here for more data, charts and regional analysis from the Yonder.

Quick hits: A.I. could churn out next generation of fake news; rural Americans less confident about economy . . .

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 heather.chapman@uky.edu.

The Daily Yonder has home-security tips for rural residents, ranging from the mainstream (Ring electronic doorbells with remote-access video) to the offbeat (peacocks). Read more here.

Most Americans are optimistic about the economy, but rural Americans are less so, according to a recent nationwide survey. Read more here.

Registration is now open for Agri-Pulse's 2021 Food & Ag Policy Summit West, which will take place July 12 online and in Sacramento. Read more here.

One in six Americans stay in a job they hate in order to keep health insurance, a recent poll found. Read more here.

A report shows how artificial intelligence could amplify future disinformation campaigns by churning out compelling fake "news" stories. Read more here.

Thanks to high demand for American-grown corn, soybeans and wheat, the Agriculture Department predicts U.S. farm exports will hit a record $164 billion in 2021. Read more here.

The USDA has rejected a pork industry request to increase the line speeds at slaughterhouses, and says it will uphold a March court decision striking down a Trump administration move to lift maximum line speeds. The USDA said in a statement that pork plants should revert to previous maximum line speeds as of June 30. Read more here.

Biden bid to save prairie chickens could spark oil-patch fight

A lesser prairie chicken
(USFWS photo by Greg Kramos)

"The Biden administration called for new protections under the Endangered Species Act for an iconic bird of the Great Plains on Wednesday, a move with major consequences for the oil and gas industry," Joshua Partlow and Juliet Eilperin report for The Washington Post.

"U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials proposed listing as endangered a portion of the lesser prairie chicken’s population living in Texas and New Mexico, whose range overlaps with the oil- and gas-rich Permian Basin," the Post reports. "The agency stopped short of awarding the same protections to the birds’ northern population, in Oklahoma and Kansas, on the grounds that their numbers had declined less drastically. The decision, one of nearly two dozen new conservation measures the administration has adopted in the past four months, underscores President Biden’s push to unravel his predecessor’s environmental policies."

The move echoes the years-long battle over the sage grouse, a similarly oddball-looking cousin of the lesser prairie chicken that also nests on prime drilling land.

Study identifies areas with significant potential to reduce downstream water pollution from nitrogen fertilizers

Regions are ranked by total nitrogen surplus. (Civil Eats map, University of Vermont data, Rural Blog label)

Nitrogen pollution from fertilizer is a significant—and difficult to solve—environmental issue: runoff contaminates drinking water and causes dead zones and toxic algae blooms in lakes and oceans, and nitrogen released into the air as the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

A new study from the University of Vermont's Nutrient Cycling and Ecological Design Lab, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, "identified 20 nitrogen 'hotspots' across the U.S. The clusters of counties not only represent areas where a large proportion of surplus nitrogen is being applied; they are also places where researchers say there is significant potential to reverse the trend—to the benefit of farmers, local residents, and the environment," Lisa Held reports for Civil Eats. "The study comes at an opportune time, as the Biden administration turns its focus to agriculture’s role in fighting climate change, and conversations about scaling up and targeting farm conservation programs are increasing."

The study identifies regions and ranks them by total nitrogen surplus. The first three are not surprising; they are in the corn-and-soybean-growing areas of the Midwest most often identified with nitrogen pollution. Less often identified with the problem are No. 4, the lower Ohio and mid-Mississippi river valleys, and No. 5, which includes parts of four northern Rocky Mountain states.

Federal Reserve reports, graphs show farm economy robust

Farm loan repayment rates (Federal Reserve charts)

Farm loan repayment rates, along with the U.S. agricultural economy in general, are improving rapidly, according to the latest Federal Reserve bank surveys on farm credit conditions in the first quarter of 2021.

Farm income 

"Following multiple years of weakness and growing financial stress, bankers reported that farm income was higher than a year ago for the second consecutive quarter and demand for farm loans was subdued," Nathan Kauffman and Ty Kreitman report for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. "Interest rates on farm loans remained at historic lows, and along with better financial conditions; supported widespread increases in farmland values."

The figures track with independent research from Creighton University agricultural economist Ernie Goss, whose Mainstreet Rural Index has found record economic confidence among Midwestern rural bankers in recent months. Booming farmland prices have also boosted the farming economy, Goss and the Federal Reserve agree.

Decline in local news coverage is bad for democracy, can increase polarization; research discusses ways to mitigate it

The decline of local newsrooms may be increasing political polarization and harming the fabric of American democracy, research indicates. Government aid could help small news outlets stay afloat, and focusing on local issues in the opinion section may help not only reduce polarization, but increase readership, Louisiana State University political-communication professor Joshua Darr writes for FiveThirtyEight in a wide-ranging piece that includes some of his own research.

"The local news business was devastated by Covid-19, even though consumers wanted more of its product," Darr writes. "Visits to local news websites spiked by 89 percent from February to March 2020, but newspapers did not profit from having more readers: Ad revenues for the largest newspaper publisher in the nation, Gannett, dropped 35% from 2019 to 2020. Journalists were laid off, furloughed or forced to accept early retirements or pay cuts. The pandemic, however, merely accelerated a crisis in local journalism" caused by several factors. Darr focuses on the results, citing research.

The decline of local news "has been linked to more corruption, less competitive elections, weaker municipal finances and a prevalence of party-line politicians who don’t bring benefits back to their districts," Darr reports. It also makes small-town residents getting their news mainly from national outlets that are often more partisan, making them more likely to vote for one party or the other. 

Editorial practices can help tamp down polarization. In 2019, the editor of The Desert Sun in Palm Springs ran only local and regional political content on the opinion page for a month, with no mention of then-President Trump or the upcoming elections. Darr and others surveyed locals and wrote a book about the experiment. Not only did the new policy slow political polarization, it nearly doubled online readership of the opinion section, he reports. 

"The economics of local news makes experiments like The Desert Sun’s difficult to replicate, however," Darr writes."The market is simply not providing local newspapers the resources they need to deliver the civic benefits they’re capable of, which raises the question as to what extent the government should step in to help. People have long debated whether freedom of the press means freedom from government assistance, but on this point, history is clear: Government policies like tax breaks and exemptions from some labor laws and minimum wage and overtime rules have benefited newspapers since the 18th century." One other way, already in place: preservation of laws requiring paid public notices.

A recently introduces bipartisan bill may help smaller news organizations. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and John Kennedy, R-La., are co-sponsoring the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which would give news organizations a temporary anti-trust exemption to collectively negotiate with tech companies "with the aim of helping smaller local publications earn back the much-needed online advertising dollars currently going to Facebook and Google," Darr notes.

Investigation finds more than 80 dams could flood communities with toxic waste if they failed

Where a dam failure would pose a significant risk to communities due to toxic waste sites, according to Undark analysis

An investigation has identified more than 80 dams in 24 states that could flood local areas with toxic waste if they failed. The risks these dams pose to toxic waste sites are mostly unrecognized by government agencies, according to interviews with dam safety, environmental and emergency officials, leaving communities nationwide vulnerable to such disasters, James Dinneen and Alexander Kennedy report for Undark.

Read more here.

Small Business Administration offers pandemic-recovery grants up to $5 million to local governments, businesses

A new Small Business Administration initiative, the Community Navigator Pilot program, will provide millions in grants to eligible organizations, including state and local governments, to speed post-pandemic economic recovery. "State and local governments are among the entities eligible to apply for the SBA’s Community Navigator Pilot program, which will offer $100 million in grants to agencies that develop a system to deliver services to underserved small businesses," Andrea Noble reports for Route Fifty. "The program offers eligible organizations, including governments, grants from $1 million to $5 million."

The government has already provided targeted relief from the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program and other programs, but many businesses could use advice and support in navigating the new economy, Bruce Strong, the state director of the Minnesota Small Business Development Center Network, told Noble. Even businesses that got PPP loans could benefit from a navigator program to ensure they use and document the funds properly, he said.

The program will award grants to up to 100 programs. The application deadline is in July, and the SBA expects to announce the awards in August. Click here for more information.

Free webinar at 1 p.m. ET Thursday, June 3, will show how rural employers can strengthen local vaccination rates

A National Rural Business Summit webinar on Thursday, June 3, will discuss how major rural employers and small businesses can engage with employees and residents to play a meaningful role in increasing the rural coronavirus vaccination rate. Strategies include sharing fact-based information, sharing personal vaccination stories, and supporting community vaccination efforts.

The free webinar will begin at 1 p.m. ET and is presented by the Rural Assembly in partnership with the Health Action Alliance, The Daily Yonder, the National Rural Health Association, The Rural America Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations. Click here to register.

In related news, a new episode of the Rural Assembly's Everywhere Radio show is all about how to overcome vaccine hesitancy in rural America. Host Whitney Kimball Coe, director of the Rural Assembly, talks with Jeff Eastman, CEO of Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit that provides free health care to those in need. Listen to the episode here.

Country music bucks pandemic bust in music industry

Canceled concerts and slightly lower music streaming rates during the pandemic torpedoed a five-year trend of rising revenues in the music industry, "but two genres have been spared the Covid crunch: children’s music and country," Lucas Shaw reports for Bloomberg. "Country in particular has thrived. U.S. residents have listened to an average of 11.1 percent more country since mid-March—an increase of 127 million streams a week. And while growth in kids’ music has subsided as more people return to work, country has only accelerated. Country music streaming climbed 22.4% in the final full week of May."

There are a few theories for country music's increased popularity. "Some have argued it is comfort food at a time when people are craving any form of succor,:" Shaw reports. "An executive at Pandora, the online radio service, noted country music is a perfect complement to drinking, (Alcohol sales have also soared during the pandemic.) . . . The simplest explanation may be the most boring: country fans are learning to stream." Though country music is the third-most popular genre in the U.S., country listeners have been more apt to buy CDs and less likely to use streaming services than consumers of other genres.

"But as Spotify has progressed from popularity to ubiquity, and tech giants Apple, Amazon and Google pumped streaming services through smart speakers, people of all ages and demographics have embraced streaming. Country has crept into the top 3 among people who use free streaming services," Shaw reports.

New rural coronavirus infections fall for sixth straight week, but rural Covid-19 death rate rises for second week in a row

New coronavirus infections, in ranges by county, May 23-29
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version

Rural America saw 21,179 new coronavirus infections last week, May 23-29, an 18 percent decrease from the previous week's 25,876 and the sixth consecutive week of declining cases. But "new Covid-related deaths in rural counties grew by about 25%, from 681 two weeks ago to 849 last week," Tim Murphy and Tim Marema report for The Daily Yonder. "Deaths have grown by 40% over the past three weeks in rural counties, while climbing only 4% in metropolitan counties." The nationwide rural Covid-related death rate last week was 38% higher than the metropolitan rate.

That said, new rural infections last week were the lowest in nearly a year and down 91% from their January peak, and new rural deaths were still about 80% below their mid-January peak. "Half of the nations’ 1,976 rural counties saw decreases in infections last week. About a quarter of rural counties had an increase in cases, while another quarter had little change," Murphy and Marema report.

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

Land investors predict rural real estate boom will continue post-pandemic, but a rural broadband and tech gap persists

Pew Research Center chart showing home broadband connection as of Feb. 8, 2021

The pandemic prompted many city dwellers to move to rural areas, and that trend will likely continue after the pandemic, according to a new survey from those interested in rural real estate. LandThink, an affiliate of real-estate site LandFlip, asked readers in April if they believed the rural real estate trend will continue post-Covid; 77.6 percent of respondents said yes.

Respondents cited factors such as the increasing popularity of remote work as reasons buyers may want to—or at least now be able to—move to a rural area. Growing rural broadband access is helping make that possible, according to an April Pew Research Center report. 

However, as Pew notes, a rural tech gap persists: as of 2020, 95% of urban Americans use the internet, compared to 94% of suburbans and 90% of rural Americans. And as of Feb. 8, only 72% of rural respondents said they had home broadband service, compared to 77% of urban respondents and 79% of suburban respondents. Rural residents were the most likely to report relying on a smartphone instead of home broadband in 2021, with 17% of rural respondents reporting so, compared to 16% of urban dwellers and 12% of suburbanites.

JBS, top U.S. beef processor, deals with ransomware attack

Five of JBS's largest U.S. beef plants have stopped processing after a ransomware attack on Sunday, halting nearly one-fifth of the nation's beef production capacity. JBS is the world's largest meat processor; in the U.S. it's the top beef producer and the second-largest pork and poultry producer.

Company officials believe the attack to be "an extortion attempt perpetrated by a criminal group likely based in Russia," Hamza Shaban reports for The Washington Post. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the attack and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reached out to several major meat processors to alert them of the situation. Officials are assessing the cyberattack’s effect on the nation’s meat supply ... as the administration works to mitigate its impact," according to a White House spokesperson.

JBS detected the attack on its networks in North America and Australia on Sunday, and said their backup servers weren't affected, and there's no evidence hackers compromised or misused data tied to customers, suppliers, or employees, Shaban reports. A security firm is helping the company restore its systems; the work "may delay certain transactions with customers or suppliers," JBS said in a press release. 

"The cyberattack is the latest to target a crucial supply chain or large institution," Shaban reports. Less than a month ago, the federal government paid hackers, likely from Russia, $4.4 million after a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline. Rural utilities and local governments are often vulnerable to hackers because of inadequate cybersecurity. 

Stories for S.C. accountability journalism project uncover corruption, misspending in local governments

Two rural South Carolina dailies have exposed questionable local tax expenditures; the stories are the latest products of an investigative reporting partnership with The Post and Courier in Charleston and 16 rural newsrooms across the state. 

The first story digs into questionable spending by the Wagener fire department that has prompted investigations by county and state officials as well as federal scrutiny. As part of a larger investigation into the town's mismanagement of taxpayer money, the Aiken Standard "has uncovered hundreds of pages of records that shed fresh light on money issues that have roiled Wagener’s fire department and divided the town," Dede Biles reports for the Standard, which is owned by The Post and Courier. "The fire department dispute is just the latest in a string of controversies arising from the town’s finances in recent years. Among other things, the town has found itself on the defensive for failing to properly insure town hall, neglecting to pay Wagener’s federal taxes on time and improperly using state money intended for crime victims to shore up other budget holes."

The second story details how local officials charged with renovating a rural school "flouted South Carolina procurement law while awarding hundreds of thousands of dollars in work, keeping the public, potential contractors and even state regulators in the dark," Matthew Hensley reports for the Index-Journal in Greenwood.

The Post and Courier launched the "Uncovered" project in February, noting that expanding rural news deserts and weak ethics laws have allowed local-government corruption to go undetected.