Secret of sushi's success, from a Southern California farm

Los Angeles Times photo

A little meme said, "It's not all about avocado toast anymore; it's all about protein bowls and sushi; sushi is always in." But why? It's the rice, reports Daniel Miller of the Los Angeles Times: "Koda Farms played a key role in the spread of sushi in Los Angeles in the 1960s, said Atsuko Kanai, daughter of Noritoshi Kanai, who helped popularize the cuisine in the Southland. Without Kokuho Rose, the farm's special strain of medium-grain rice, his sushi gambit might have failed. Atsuko, whose father visited Koda Farms in 1963 and struck a distribution deal to wholesale the Kokuho Rose rice to L.A. restaurants, told Miller, "There were a few things that made sushi possible — No. 1 and most pivotal was the rice Koda Farms … [made. It was] a more palatable rice that could be served in sushi."

"Launched in 1962, Kokuho Rose was developed by Koda Farms in conjunction with rice breeder Arthur Hughes Williams. The heirloom variety, Koda said, crossed a California medium-grain rice with a Middle Eastern long-grain to create a new, higher-quality medium-grain offering," Miller explains. "The rice was a revelation: Until the invention of this medium-grain strain, what had been available to make sushi in California was 'tasteless, couldn't retain moisture, and would get brittle as it cooled down,' said Anthony Al-Jamie, editor in chief of the Japanese culture magazine Tokyo Journal."

One might not have happened without the other. "It isn't just Atsuko Kanai who has touted the significance of Koda Farms' contribution to L.A.'s sushi supply chain. Al-Jamie said that the creation of Kokuho Rose was 'essential' to the spread of sushi across the region," Miller reports. "Without the heirloom rice, Al-Jamie said, 'I don't think [sushi] would have taken off' when it did. . . . In more recent years, Koda Farms' rice has won acclaim from chefs and food publications. In 2020, Sunset magazine dubbed it the 'Holy Grail of California Rice.'. . . But, in a twist, Kokuho Rose is no longer a sushi bar staple, with chefs now preferring short-grain rice. In the 1980s, Koda said, more Japanese short-grain rice became available in the U.S. market, which may explain the change. That rice, she said, is 'more sticky' than Kokuho Rose, and 'it seems to be a preference' among sushi chefs."

Farm lobbies ask Congress to improve commodity programs

By Adam Goldstein
States Newsroom

Farm and commodity trade-association leaders lobbied for updating commodity programs and strengthening crop-insurance programs at a Tuesday hearing of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee.

They said crop insurance and the Department of Agriculture’s Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage programs are not a “true safety net” for farmers, and that crop reference prices must be increased due to declining farm income and increasing costs.

A reference price is the Farm Bill's estimated cost of crop production, used for insurance and other risk-management program. Prices were last updated in the 2014 Farm Bill.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall told the committee that what he hears most often from farmers about the bill is the need to strengthen and expand federal crop insurance.

Kentucky farmer Caleb Ragland testified (Photo via Morning AgClips)

Caleb Ragland, a row-crop farmer from Magnolia, Kentucky, said crop insurance is one of the main ways his farm stays viable. “Without crop insurance, the risks would be more than many farmers and lenders could handle,” he said. “It certainly would be for me and my family.”

Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, asked how to better provide crop insurance options for specialty crop farmers. Duvall said the most important things are that the program is funded correctly and is easy for farmers to use; National Farmers Union President Rob Larew suggested more actively applying a provision of the Federal Crop Insurance Act to encourage adoption and continued use of climate-smart agricultural practices by developing new specialty-crop insurance policies.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa asked how Congress might bolster the farm safety net without costing the country more money. Duvall said “I don’t have any suggestions.”

Grassley also asked Larew if owners of commodity farmland should be eligible for safety-net programs if they are not actively farming, since the biggest 10% of farms get 70% of the money. Larew said the NFU supports limiting payments to those truly invested in management and labor.

Dental deserts widen the gap in care for rural Americans; a look at Florida highlights reasons for the continued disparity

Implants, dentures, etc. (Photo by Jonathan Borba, Unsplash)

"Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease in children and adults in the United States," says the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention. While most dental diseases are preventable or treatable, even the most basic care is often not accessible for rural Americans. Reasons for care disparities range from the dental hygienist shortage to non-existent dental insurance and low Medicaid reimbursements to transportation limitations. Florida is an example of a state that has been unable to overcome these challenges,  reports Lauren Peace of the Tampa Bay Times.

"Every day, Adrienne Grimmett and her colleagues at Evara Health, a not-for-profit which serves Medicaid and uninsured patients in the Tampa Bay region, see stories of inequity in their patient's teeth, gums, and palates," Peace writes. "Marked in painful abscesses, dangerous infections, and missing molars are tales of unequal access to care. . . . All these ailments — which keep patients out of work. . . . and children out of school because they can't concentrate with rotting roots — are preventable. Annual dental checks are essential to overall health. But of the 67 counties in Florida, experts say, only one has enough dentists to treat all patients [and] Lafayette County, in north Florida, doesn't have a single one."

Grimmett, Evara's director of dental services, told Peace, "It's a social injustice. You will never be totally well if you don't have oral health." Peace reports, "About 6 million Floridians live in dental deserts, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. That's the largest state population living without basic dental care in the U.S. . . . Vulnerable and marginalized communities — already prone to higher rates of chronic disease and limited access to health care — are left behind in these dental deserts."

The U.S. does not have a dentist shortage; however, "The majority of [dental] graduates aren't practicing in underserved communities. . . . The issue is uneven distribution, said Joe Anne Hart, who's worked for the Florida Dental Association for nearly two decades. . . . And often, she added, there's a financial reason why dentists choose to practice in more affluent regions: student loan debt. . . .With fewer patients in mostly poorer rural communities, graduates flock to private practices elsewhere, seeking financial stability. . . . . Because Medicaid reimbursements for dental care are paltry, even in urban areas, most dentists opt not to serve Medicaid patients."

Even when a rural citizen has a dentist, the cost of the treatment can make it "unattainable." Peace spoke with 40-year-old Lisa Lambros from New Port Richey, pop. 17,000, who drive "90 minutes to Tampa for appointments at the county health department. She lost her teeth due to cancer three years ago and desperately needs dentures but hasn't been able to afford them. She feels bad for her kids, embarrassed when they bring friends home to meet her." Lambros told her, "I had perfect teeth until I got sick. Now people treat me differently. They look at me like I'm a bad person." Peace adds, "Lambros lives with daily pain that could be relieved with dental care."

Frank Catalanotto is a founding member of Floridians for Dental Access. "His organization is a partnership between nonprofits, individual dentists and medical centers working to improve health access in the state. . . He's motivated to close disparities," Peace reports. "Catalanotto stressed that teeth don't fix themselves. . . . Some minor ailments, such as colds and viral infections, can simply run their course. A minor dental ailment, he said, does no such thing. Oral disease is progressive and ongoing and ultimately leads to severe infections."

Dry, loose dirt at corn-planting time can lead to dust storms; 'erratic winds' and zero visibility make driving impossible

Stranded vehicles after Illinois' dust storm on May 1
(Photo by Thomas DeVore, TMX, via Reuters)

Dust storms are not unique to desert regions; with the right conditions, they can even happen in the Corn Belt, as the dust storm that closed part of Interstate 55 in Illinois this week proved.

By definition, a dust storm is a "massive wall of sand, dust and grit — often a mile or higher and as much as several hundred miles long. . . . The storms can be accompanied by 60-mph winds, visibilities of barely a few feet and a suffocating concentration of dust particles that can pose a respiratory risk to virtually anybody," reports Matthew Cappucci of The Washington Post. "They can lead to deadly pileups on interstates and can render airports inoperable until conditions improve."

Farming and meterology are involved. Discussing the May 1 storm with USA Today, meteorologist Chuck Schaffer said, "It's been very dry across this area really for the last three weeks. The farmers are out there tilling their fields and planting. The top layer of soil is quite loose." Cappucci explains: "Dust storms form when strong winds loft dust into the air. Those strong winds are usually the result of thunderstorm outflow or exhaust — the cool, dense and dry air exiting a thunderstorm and surging ahead of it that kicks up dust along the storm's outflow boundary.' The dust acts as a tracer marking the wind-shift line. Anyone in the dust storm's path will spy a massive shelf of dust, which will race toward them with 40- to 60-plus-mph wind gusts and a drop in temperatures. Behind that initial outflow boundary, heavy rains within the thunderstorm can combine with remnant dust in the air to form muddy raindrops."

The impact can be great. "If a person is caught outdoors, the dust can be very problematic from a respiratory standpoint," Capucci reports. "The biggest threat from dust storms comes on the roadways. Erratic winds and abrupt drops in visibility can happen in seconds. The National Weather Service recommends drivers' pull to the side and stay alive' if they're passing through an affected area when a dust storm hits."

Where do most U.S. dust storms take place? "They're relatively frequent occurrences in the Desert Southwest, mainly in Arizona and New Mexico," Cappucci adds. "They also can make appearances on the Plains if there are existing drought conditions. The soil is more earthen over the central United States and less sandy, so lofting granules is more challenging. The drier the topsoil, though, the easier it is to lift. . . . Sometimes derechos, or extremely windy thunderstorm complexes that track long distances, can induce their own dust storms. That was the case on May 12, 2022, in Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas."

Court axes regulatory exception for mid-sized factory farms; hundreds of them will need environmental assessments

A beef-cattle feedlot (Photo via Northern Ag Network)

A federal court has thrown out an environmental examption for some concentrated animal feeding operations. "Medium-sized CAFOs receiving Department of Agriculture loans will be required to have an environmental assessment after a federal court vacated part of a 2016 Farm Service Agency rule," reports Todd Neeley of Progressive Farmer. "The court's ruling is likely to affect hundreds of CAFOs across the country. . . . FSA adopted a rule in 2016 that exempted from environmental review livestock facilities that confine up to 2,500 pigs, 1,000 beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, 125,000 chickens or 55,000 turkeys."

FSA's 2016 exemption sped up USDA loan approvals, which one individual called an "onerous impediment to obtaining financing for operations that will often include young or beginning farmers," Needley reports. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the District Court for the District of Columbia said the FSA had violated the National Environmental Policy Act. "USDA admitted the FSA failed to provide notice and comment before creating the exemption," Neeley notes. "During the five years that the case has been pending, the agency failed to offer mechanisms for community feedback or evidence that medium-sized CAFOs lack environmental impact."

Poor environmental outcomes and insufficient evidence supporting the exemption have made factory farms controversial. "CAFOs have been a point of contention between the livestock industry and environmental activists since they began to proliferate in the 1990s, overtaking small, pasture-feeding operations as the dominant form of animal agriculture in the U.S.," reports Madison McVan of the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. "One large CAFO can easily produce more than one million tons of manure per year — more than the yearly waste of a large city." 

An exact count of how many CAFOs will be affected is not available, but the animal-welfare groups that filed the lawsuit found through the Freedom of Information Act that "The FSA made 130 direct loans of more than $100,000 or guaranteed loans of more than $300,000 each to animal facilities in Indiana alone from August 2016 to August 2018," Neeley reports. "The FSA did a review of its loan decisions for 2010 and 2011, finding there were more than 650 loans issued to broiler chicken medium-sized CAFOs alone."

"The ruling makes no mention of the economic impact, including shortages and price increases that might result from the newly added environmental hurdles," reports Dan Flynn of the Food Safety Network. However, the judge's opinion noted, "Although FSA admitted error in September 2019, to date, it appears that FSA has taken no action to correct its error . . . More importantly, however, there is nothing in the record to confirm FSA's insistence that it will be able to substantiate the challenged (exemption) on remand."

Roundup for World Press Freedom Day: Americans think news media hurt democracy; journalists concerned about press freedoms; site picked for Fallen Journalists Memorial

Associated Press chart refers to "the news media" as singular, which is not helpful. --Al Cross, Institute for Rural Journalism

Most Americans think the news media are hurting democracy and driving political polarization in the United States, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. "Four in 10 say the press is doing more to hurt American democracy, while only about 2 in 10 say the press is doing more to protect it," AP reports. "Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults say the news media is increasing political polarization in this country, and just under half say they have little to no trust in the media’s ability to report the news fairly and accurately. . . . That breakdown in trust may prompt many Americans to reject the mainstream news media, often in favor of social media and unreliable websites that spread misleading claims and that can become partisan echo chambers, leading to further polarization."

AP's David Klepper adds, "The survey reveals the complicated relationship many Americans have with the media: A majority rate in-depth and investigative reporting as very helpful or extremely helpful for understanding the issues they care about, but they are more likely to say they regularly scan the headlines than read an in-depth investigative article. And while overall trust in the media is low, a majority of respondents say the media is doing at least somewhat well in covering issues they care about." The poll of 1,002 adults was conducted March 30 through April 3 using a sample from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. NORC stands for the former name of the National Opinion Research Center.

On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the news media are under attack all over the world and "urged all nations to stop the targeting of truth and those who report it," AP reports. "Guterres said the collapse of the media industry, which has led to closures of local news outlets and consolidation of media 'into the hands of the few' is threatening freedom of expression." World Press Freedom Day was first proclaimed by the U.N. General Assembly in December 1993.

Pew Research Center graph

"Most journalists in the United States are concerned about the future of press freedoms in the country, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey of nearly 12,000 working U.S.-based journalists," Pew reports. "These concerns come at a time when the U.S. ranks 42nd in the world in press freedom, according to a 2022 analysis by Reporters Without Borders, and as some journalists face harassment or threats of arrest." The poll found that concern increases with age and with experience in journalism.

A site on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., has been approved for "the capital’s first memorial dedicated to journalists who have died while reporting the news and to the role of the free press in a democracy," The Washington Post reports. The Fallen Journalists Memorial will be be built between the National Museum of the American Indian and the Voice of America building, at Independence and Maryland avenues and Third Street SW. "The site, which has a direct view of the Capitol, was chosen to evoke journalists’ role as government watchdogs," the Post reports. "The memorial is projected to open in 2028 and will cost as much as $50 million, which will be entirely funded by private donations. Officials said they have commitments to cover 40 percent of the cost so far."

Media mogul Robert Allbritton says he has committed $20 million to launch a non-profit educational newsroom that will train reporters in fact-based, non-partisan journalism on government and politics. The Allbritton Journalism Institute will offer a free, two-year fellowship, starting in September, and fellows will be paid $60,000 per year as they work with reporters and editors to produce a digital news publication launching this fall, a press release said. Allbritton, the founder of Politico, said “The path to a strong republic flows through reliable news and information, and that starts with the way journalists are recruited and trained.” AJI's executive director is Tim Grieve, the founding editor of Politico Pro and Protocol; editors include Richard Just, the former editor of The Washington Post Magazine, National Journal magazine and The New Republic. Instructors and mentors include Tim Alberta, a staff writer for The Atlantic and author of American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump. Applicants may apply on the Institute’s website, www.aji.org. The deadline is May 31. Professional journalists interested in working with AJI should contact Grieve at tim@aji.org.

Dept. of Agriculture offers 5 virtual mental-health workshops for rural residents on five Tuesdays starting May 9

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will highlight mental health in a series of weekly workshops May 9 through June 6, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. ET each Tuesday. The series will gather farmers, ranchers, faith leaders, rural health providers, USDA employees, and federal, state and university partners to discuss mental-health challenges, stressors, and the resources and services available to address them. These meetings will be conducted virtually using Zoom.gov. A link to the workshop will be provided upon registration; contact center@usda.gov with any questions. Click here and see below for more information and to register.

May 9: Farm Stress and Suicide Prevention: Data, Challenges, and Opportunities: This session provides context for the issue of farm stress and suicide by focusing on available data, challenges, and opportunities for farm stress researchers, practitioners, and service providers. Panelists include the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, the American Farm Bureau Federation, Farm Aid, and others to discuss the state of the field and offer insights into their respective partner programs, resources, and emergent needs. Register

May 16: Veterans Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Workshop: Rural veterans experience a significantly increased risk of suicide. In this workshop, you will learn how to act with care and compassion if you encounter a veteran who is in crisis or experiencing suicidal thoughts. Register

May 23; Rural Mental Health Matters: Challenges, Opportunities and Resources for Communities: This session focuses on the resources and tools that are available in rural places, where over 60% of Americans live in mental-health provider shortage areas. Speakers will examine programs focused on giving rural and frontier communities the tools they need to thrive through creative problem solving. With perspectives rooted in rural services, behavioral health, and technology, the presentations and follow-on conversation will explore the importance of increasing the efficiency of providers in rural areas and other solutions, to challenges that rural communities face to ensure community wellbeing and economic prosperity. Register

May 30: Farm Stress and Suicide: Faith, Place, and Community Health: This session provides an overview of the USDA Center for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and highlights the challenges faced by many Americans during Mental Health Awareness Month. A training on farm stress, health and well-being will be provided by The Well Church Initiative of Texas A&M Extension to discuss and highlight tools and resources available to faith and community-based organizations as they support their congregants and communities. Register

June 6: LGBTQ+ Mental Health in Rural Communities: This session will focus on the lived experienced of LGBTQ+ identifying folks in rural communities across the country. Discussion and dialogue will focus on mental health, the relationship to stress, and more. Register

Lee to make most papers weeklies, under a definition that's getting archaic; be frank with readers in making the move

One of the newspaper industry's oldest conventions, that a paper is considered a weekly if it's published three or fewer times a week and a daily if it's published four or more times a week, is gradually vanishing in the age of 24/7 digital publishing.

That was driven home by the plan of Lee Enterprises, a major national chain, "to reduce the number of days it prints in most of its newspapers to three days per week," as reported by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan, a digital-only States Newsroom nonprofit that serves the state where Lee owns five dialy papers. It broke the news, based on multiple sources; Ehrlick is a former Lee employee.

"Four people who spoke to the Daily Montanan on condition of anonymity confirmed the company is planning to reduce its printing schedule in all publications, except for 20 of its largest titles," Ehrlick reports. "It’s unclear how that will affect the five newspapers in Montana." Those are the Billings Gazette, the Missoulian, the Ravalli Republic, the Montana Standard in Butte and the Helena Independent Record in the state capital. "Some sources were told the change would take place this summer," Ehrlick writes. "Repeated inquiries to Lee officials at both the corporate and state levels were not returned."

Papers have been reducing print frequency for years, but the trend is accelerating, and a historic tipping point seems at hand. "Print frequency has long been a term used to understand the audience and purpose of publications," Kirsten Staples writes for Editor & Publisher, in a story with advice about how to make and manage such a change. 

John Newby (Photo via E&P)

John Newby, who operates the consultancies 360 Media Alliance and Truly-Local, told Staples, “Reducing frequency is a local decision based on local parameters. What is right for one community or market may not be the correct path in another. . . . Reducing several days can add up to quite a few dollars. But buyer beware, not all this newfound revenue will be realized if you haven't factored in the loss of subscribers. Depending on the market, this hit ranges from 2-3% to greater than 15%. Many will come back in the future, but there will be some short-term subscriber erosion.”

The top concern should be the readers, and newspapers must understand them and their needs, Newby said. "Newby recalled a time when he worked with a newspaper considering reducing its print frequency, increasing its rates and moving the publication to mail. They eventually decided it would be best to make all changes at once to avoid disrupting their readership multiple times that year."

Newby recalled, “The publisher and editor did a great job telling the public what was happening. They discussed financials, [difficulty] finding carriers, newsprint costs, market trends and much more. They treated their readers as family and conveyed the reason for the changes honestly. At the end of the day, they lost very few readers and gained a ton of respect simply by being honest with their readers upfront about the reasons for the changes. That is what actually builds your brand — honesty and transparency.”

Likewise, Newby said, savings should be used for improvements, not just used to stabilize the bottom line. “If the newly found revenue is not invested back into the product, all you have done is extract from your product, providing the reader with a less delightful reading experience," Newby said. "To survive, our industry still needs to find new revenue verticals that help sustain the news product. I don't have all the answers on that front, but I know we continue to ignore many verticals as the digital world passes us by. E-commerce, Ai, creative and revenue-producing loyalty programs ... and the list goes on.”

George Coleman, general manager of the Victoria Advocate in Texas, told Staples that when he cut print days from five to three at Tennessee's Lebanon Democrat about five years ago, “We doubled up on comics, puzzles, Dear Abby and other features we knew they would miss. As a result, the papers were larger in page count than the previous Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday papers. We still produced content every day of the week, so our subscribers had access to the most current information on our website. From an expense standpoint, the biggest loser of this move was the post office. By making this move, we did not impact our employees in any way. Furthermore, the readers received all the content they were used to receiving. Also, by printing every other day, we kept our print-only readers informed of the local obituaries, which are very important to older readers.”

Willie's 90th birthday bash covers a century of American music, whose course he changed by moving back to Texas

Willie Nelson greeted Keith Richards at the Hollywood Bowl Sunday.
(Photo by Randall Michelson of EB Media, via Los Angeles Times)

"It’s not much of an exaggeration — and yet it defies logic — to say that you could trace the history of American music’s last 100 years during the two nights of “Willie Nelson 90: Long Story Short” at the Hollywood Bowl over the weekend. Jazz, country, gospel, blues, rock, Nashville pop, Americana, even hip-hop (well, he smokes with Snoop) are all seamlessly part of Nelson’s DNA, and all were represented over the dozens of tributes paid to him as he turned 90," Mikael Wood and Erin Osmon report for the Los Angeles Times.

More than 45 artists took the stage to honor Nelson; Osmon and Wood chose 10 outstanding moments, including Roseanne Cash and 86-year-old Kris Kristofferson, who sang “Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again).” Sturgill Simpson "said the only reason he went to Nashville to make country records was 'because I grew up listening to country records by Willie Nelson' — records, he added, that exist 'outside of the box of what most people think country records can be.'" Other standoiuts: Beck, Chris Stapleton, George Strait, Allison Russell and Norah Jones, Lukas Nelson, Emmylou Harris and Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow and Keith Richards, who joined Willie for "a beautifully crusty version of Waylon Jennings’ 'We Had It All,' which sounded about a million years old, and Billy Joe Shaver’s very aptly titled 'Live Forever.'"

In advance of the concert, Michael Granberry of the Dallas Morning News did an overview of Nelson's career, which began in rural Texas, went to Nashville for songwriting, and returned to his home state: "Willie did more than change the course of American music with his risk-taking move from Nashville to Austin. Nearly half a century after the release of "Red Headed Stranger," his legacy extends to performances in the White House. To his fans and friends, Willie is a timeless icon. He shows not a shred of shame as the country’s most alluring pot smoker. And he somehow manages to rise above political and cultural divides, appealing to young and old, rich and poor, even to the most outspoken on the left and right." Joe Nick Patoski, who wrote the 2008 biography Willie Nelson: An Epic Life, told Granberry that Nelson is “the single most important Texan of the 20th and the 21st century, because he not only reflects — he defines Texas culture. No single person epitomizes the qualities that make Texans different from other people and separates Texas from the rest of the world, not just the United States.”

'People think that it's just a city problem, while it's not;' death by gunfire is more likely in rural America, study shows

Map by Joe Murphy, NBC News, from Centers for Disease Conrol and Prevention data

It's perhaps an unexpected truth: If you're an urban dweller, you are less likely to die from a gun-inflicted wound than someone living in small-town America. "Gun death rates are consistently higher in rural areas than in big cities, two decades of data show," report Aria Bendix and Joe Murphy of NBC News. "From 2011 to 2020, the most rural counties in the U.S. had a 37% higher rate of gun deaths per capita than the most urban counties, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Surgery. That's up from a 25% difference from 2000 to 2010. . . . Findings are based on an analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The authors attributed the trend to a rise in gun suicides, which outnumbered gun homicides in 2021 by more than 5,300 and are more likely to occur in rural counties."

Paul Reeping, who conducted the research at Columbia University, told NBC, "Rural areas are sort of ignored when we pass firearm laws because people think that it's just a city problem, while it's not. Suicides were always the highest in rural areas. That hasn't changed. It's just that the gun deaths overall have gone up, including firearm suicides, in those areas." NBC reports, "From 2011 to 2020, the most rural counties had a 46% lower rate of gun homicide deaths than the most urban counties but a 76% higher rate of gun suicide deaths, according to Reeping's analysis."

Gun ownership and the number of firearm deaths rates may trend together. "CDC data suggests firearm death rates tend to be highest in mountain Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming. Research from the Rand Corp., a nonpartisan think tank, found a similar trend for gun suicides in 2020." Andrew Morral, a senior behavioral scientist at Rand, told NBC, "These are also states that, not coincidentally, have particularly high firearm ownership rates at the population level. . . . The urban areas have a little bit higher rate of firearm homicides, but it's not huge."

Digging into the data gets sticky, "Because there is no comprehensive national firearm registry and very few state registries, it is difficult to track gun ownership in the U.S., so estimates of gun ownership rely on survey data or measures closely related to gun ownership–such as the number of firearm laws," reports Heather Saunders of the Kaiser Family Foundation. But given the date that's available, "More than twice as many suicides by firearm occur in states with the fewest gun laws, relative to states with the most laws."

More relaxed gun laws, combined with a higher number of gun owners could explain some of the increase. NBC reports, "Researchers suspect that higher rates of firearm ownership in rural counties could drive up gun suicide rates. A 2020 study found that owning a handgun was associated with a greatly elevated risk of firearm suicide among both men and women." Saunders reports, "Firearms are the most lethal method of suicide attempts, and about half of suicide attempts take place within 10 minutes of the current suicide thought, so having access to firearms is a suicide risk factor."

What could lower the number of gun deaths in rural America? "Reeping said safe storage laws — which require guns at home to be unloaded, locked and stored when people who can't legally possess guns are present — might help," NBC reports. "Reeping also noted that doctors at hospitals can assess whether people at risk for suicide have access to firearms, then work with the patient's families to limit that access — a process known as 'lethal means counseling.'. . . Morral, meanwhile, highlighted the effectiveness of red flag laws —which allow state courts to order the temporary removal of firearms from people's possession if they pose significant threats to themselves or others — at preventing both suicides and homicides. . . . He also pointed to a Harvard-led initiative called the Gun Shop Project, which helps gun retailers display and distribute suicide prevention materials and teaches them how to avoid selling or renting firearms to customers at risk of suicide."

Record-breaking snowmelt is flooding the Mississippi

Mississippi River course, watershed, and major tributaries
(Wikipedia map)

Where there's snow, there's eventually water, and this spring, the Mississippi River and its vast tributaries have left their drought-filled days behind and are swelling with record-breaking snowmelt. "Flooding expected this spring is likely to bring the river to its highest level in over 20 years, according to the National Weather Service," reports Kayla Guo of Politico. "For the next three weeks, the Department of Agriculture said, all barge traffic across part of the Upper Mississippi has stopped due to flooding. . . . [It] predicts that around the end of this week, locks and dams as far south as Saverton, Missouri (around the Mississippi River's midpoint) could be forced to shut down until mid-May due to high water."

Riverside Park in La Crosse, Wis., flooded on April 26.
(Photo by Eric Auer Lee, La Crosse Tribune)

People in the river's central valley are preparing for the surge. "Cities in Iowa and Illinois are likely to face a big test of beefed-up flood defenses in the next week as flooding from record snow in Minnesota courses down the Mississippi River," reports Joe Barrett of The Wall Street Journal. "Some cities in Minnesota had record or near-record snowfall this winter, and much of it rapidly melted as temperatures climbed to the 80s and 90s earlier this month. . . . Peak floodwaters are heading for Iowa and Illinois. . . .The floods aren't expected to cause as much damage as they did in 2019. . . . One of the biggest and longest-lasting flood seasons on record. . . . Snow this winter was heavily concentrated in Minnesota and Wisconsin, so most tributaries of the Mississippi south of those states aren't likely to contribute to the flood."

Marquette, Iowa, pop. 430, is one town preparing. "Highway 76 along the Mississippi is closed north of Marquette. Marquette Mayor Steve Weipert said the city is in a good place, as they continue to follow their plans," reports KCRG News in Cedar Rapids. Weipert told KCRG, "We knew at every stage what we had to do, and go ahead and get 'er done, and that's how life goes on the river." Barrett reports, "Still, the floods are poised to present the first significant test of new pumps and strengthened temporary levees that cities put in place or into their flood-fighting plans after 2019. . . . The river crested in La Crosse, Wis., about 25 miles north of the Iowa border, on Wednesday at the third-highest level ever."

Satellites can spot methane emissions from individual wells

Satellite photo over the Permian Basin in New Mexico on Dec. 24
shows methane escaping from an APA Corp. facility. Bloomberg News
gave the photo to APA, which reported the emission to state regulators.

Satellite images of methane emissions from oil and gas production have become so detalied that the emissions can now be attributed to individual wells and other assets, Bloomberg's Aaron Clark reports.

There are three such satellites in orbit now, and at least 24 "are expected to be in orbit by the end of this year, quietly tracking the super pollutant that’s invisible to the naked eye," Clark reports. "Their sensors are able to detect the natural gas component as it spews from pipelines, unlit flares, storage tanks and compressor stations around the world. The images sent back are crystal clear and leave little doubt about who is responsible for leaks. . . . Much of the demand for the data is coming from oil and gas operators themselves, who are increasingly using the systems to identify leaks along thousands of miles of pipeline or remote facilities. . . . The detections are also empowering regulators and the public. New Mexico officials said in March they were inspecting any methane plumes detected by NASA and other entities and would use the data to evaluate reporting and compliance by operators."

While carbon dioxide is the main contributor to global warming because it lasts up to 200 years in the atmposphere, "Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first two decades in the atmosphere," Clark notes. "Halting emissions of the greenhouse gas could do more to slow climate change in the near term than almost any other single measure."

Feds still mulling old request to test gene-modified chestnut trees in the wild; to play God after playing the Devil?

A horse chestnut tree
(Photo by Jean Mottershead, flickr.com via CC)

Eastern U.S. forests were once full of chestnut trees, but they are gone, and only science can replace them. "The majestic trees grew as much as 100 feet tall and 10 feet wide. . . . Over the 20th century, an estimated four billion of them, one-fourth of the hardwood trees growing in Appalachia, were killed by an Asian fungus accidentally imported in the late 19th century," recounts Sarah Gibben of National Geographic. "It's considered one of the worst environmental disasters to strike North America—and also a preview. . . . Emerald ash borer, sudden oak death--in a globalizing world, many trees are facing pandemics of their own."

Given the mass loss and desire to reestablish part of native Appalachia, some efforts have been launched to grow blight-proof chestnut trees. They're still trying. Tom Saielli, a forest scientist for the American Chestnut Foundation, told Gibbens, "Fast-forward 30-plus years of breeding work, and what we see is, blight resistance is much more complicated than we really thought."

The crux of the problem is the insidious infecting fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, which releases oxalic acid; the acid kills adult chestnut trees, so efforts to hybridze them with Chinese chestnuts failed around the time the hybrid trees were 15 years old. Then reseearchers found "a wheat gene that enhanced pathogen resistance in tomatoes" and produces "an enzyme that breaks down the acid produced by the blight fungus, rendering it harmless," Gibben reports. They added the gene to the chestnut's genome and produced a modified tree that they named Darling 58. "Trees grown in test plots proved tolerant of the blight."

Researcher Bill Powell of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, N.Y., "is confident Darling 58 is safe, but transgenic trees inspire a fear of the unknown," Gibbens writes. "In 2014, chestnut fans wanted to know when they could get Darling 58. Eight years later, they’re still waiting. . . .Who can grow genetically modified crops and where they can be grown are tightly regulated in the United States. Powell and his colleagues have asked the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency to deregulate Darling 58, affording it the status of a non-modified tree. . . .Anne Petermann, executive director of the Global Justice Ecology Project, told Gibbens, "Once these are out in the forest, there's no calling them back. There's no way to reverse it." Allen Nichols, president of the New York chapter of the chestnut foundation, told Gibbens, "Some people say, 'You're playing God,' What I say is: 'We've been playing the devil for ages, so we need to start playing God, or we're going to start losing a whole mess of stuff.'"

Update: Deadline to apply is EOD Monday, May 8, for Solutions Journalism Network project designed for rural newsrooms

Solutions Journalism logo

"Are you looking for a new way to cover your community's chronic problems? Are you looking to meaningfully engage with your community (and staff) differently? How could this lens of reporting benefit Rural America — and specifically, your community?"

So asks the Solutions Journalism Network as it launches a new professional-development opportunity specifically for rural-serving newsrooms. The Rural Cohort is a seven-month professional development program designed to support and train newsrooms seeking to learn solutions journalism and put it into regular practice.

This isn't a program designed to add work to a newsroom's already full plate, SJ says. Instead, cohort members will learn how to convert some of the vital and valuable coverage they're already doing into a solutions framework. Examples: county commission agendas, school board meetings, press releases and regular beat coverage.

SJ hopes to to have 10 newsrooms in its first cohort and that each will produce at least six solutions stories for their communities. Cohort members will meet once a month for two hours of training and another hour a month with a partner newsroom and a coach for mentorship.

Those interested in learning more or asking questions are may want to watch the recorded information session here.  The passcode is: fb!H=JK8

 

If you have additional questions, reach out to Melissa Cassutt: melissa@solutionsjournalism.org

Wind-turbine lights have ruined some rural night sky views; states have moved to regulate, but changes may be slow

Red lights on wind turbines flash against an overcast sky.
(Photo by Evert Nelson, The Topeka Capital-Journal)

Rural residents living near wind turbines have reported their formely idyllic settings are now more like "industrial zones," and the turbines' lights are one cause, reports Shannon Najmabadi of The Wall Street Journal. "The lights are an eyesore that has ruined their view of the night sky and disrupted the bucolic stillness that defined their counties. . . .'Imagine…red blinking stoplights…every night, all night long…and not in sync,' Gayla Randel, who can see the lights on more than 130 turbines from her Marshall County, Kan., home, told lawmakers this year."

Wind power has been "loosely regulated, but lawmakers in some states are cracking down," Najmabadi reports. "Kansas and Colorado recently passed laws to limit the flashing lights—by turning them on only when aircraft are approaching. North Dakota approved a similar measure in 2017. Aircraft-detection technology approved by the Federal Aviation Administration has been on the market for a half-dozen years. The systems are estimated to cost $1 million to $2 million to install with additional operating expenses each year. . . . Many wind developers and renewable energy proponents have backed the recent efforts." Kimberly Svaty, the Kansas Power Alliance public policy director, told Najmabodi, "Light-mitigation technology is definitely something that can be done to help improve the relationship with the community."

The last five years have seen a push to regulate the side effects of wind power, Najmabodi reports: "Towns, counties and states passed some 1,800 ordinances regulating wind energy as of 2022, according to a database compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. By comparison, researchers there found around 250 ordinances in 2018. . . . Officials with Terma and DeTect Inc., two aircraft-detection lighting system vendors, said they have seen demand for their technology increase significantly since 2018. . . . The companies use radars to activate red lights if a low-flying aircraft comes within 3½ miles of a project."

"Residents in states that don't regulate the red lights have said the nighttime presence of the turbines has been more disruptive than they anticipated, "Najmabodi adds. "Nakila Blessing and her husband built a house on his family's farm in Schuyler County, Missouri, in 2018, on a hill looking out at fields and trees. Two years later, the 175-turbine High Prairie wind farm project was constructed. Blessing said their landscape is now cluttered with 500-foot-tall turbines, and the night sky is polluted with light." She told Najmabodi, "They like to say you'll get used to it.You don't get used to it."

How effective light-mitigation laws will be for rural residents depends on timing and contracts. "Colorado law doesn't require existing wind turbines to be retrofitted with light-mitigating technology," Najmabodi explains. "Older wind projects in Washington state have to apply for the new technology by early 2028. . . .Starting in 2026, wind developers in Kansas must apply to use the technology after they renegotiate power purchase contracts. The terms for those agreements can last 20 years. . . . "Jerry Sonnenberg, a Republican former state senator who wrote the red-light law in Colorado, said the technology isn't cost-prohibitive for most companies, but they have not been required to use it. . . . Sonnenberg, now a county commissioner, compared the red lights to those on an ambulance and said the flashing is 'rather annoying.'"

Ransomware isn't going away; it's a local and global threat that demands ongoing vigilance, especially in rural areas

Image by Markus Spiske, Unsplash

It's a global problem, and rural areas are more vulnerable. It's not Covid-19, it's ransomware. "What was once an easily squashed nuisance is now seen as a persistent threat," reports Mike Allen of Axios. "Ransomware attacks, which take an organization's data hostage and shut down its systems until the hackers receive payment, have exacted an escalating price on law enforcement, policymaking and financial resources around the world."

What does a rural ransomware attack look like? "Westmoreland, Kansas, is the seat of Pottawatomie County and home to around 750 of its 25,000 residents. . . . [In 2021] data was stolen from Pottawatomie County’s computers by cybercriminals who paralyzed its systems with ransomware and left some services inaccessible to residents for weeks," reports Andrea Peterson of The Record, a cyber news source. "The infiltration and the County’s reaction highlights the complicated economic, financial, and social factors at play when local government systems are compromised. . . .The attackers originally demanded $1 million, but settled for $71,250 after 'a successful negotiation' highlighting the County’s limited financial means."

Along broader lines, last week, cybersecurity professionals gathered to discuss ongoing global challenges. "Rob Joyce, the National Security Agency's director of cybersecurity, told reporters that Russian hackers are now weaponizing ransomware in attempted attacks against Ukrainian logistics supply chain companies, as well as organizations in Western-allied countries," Allen adds. "Cybersecurity firm Sophos said in a report released Tuesday that 68% of cyberattacks last year involved ransomware. . . . A panel on the last day of the gathering acted out what the federal response to a hypothetical, Iran-backed ransomware attack on U.S. banks in 2025 might look like."

Fighting ransomware attacks is taking a consistent, long-term approach. "Many ransomware operators are based in Russia, where the Kremlin tends to turn a blind eye to cyber criminals targeting Western countries. . . . Organizations still struggle with basic cyber hygiene to protect themselves," Allen reports. "Government sanctions, internet server takedowns and criminal arrests have slowly but steadily reduced businesses' willingness to pay ransomware gangs, Tom Hofmann, chief intelligence officer at Flashpoint, said. . . . The number of ransomware attacks dropped 15% between 2021 and 2022, according to recent data from Google-owned threat intelligence firm Mandiant. But that came after they skyrocketed the year before."

Rural readers in the Great Plains are more willing to support newspapers with alternative revenue than publishers think

As rural newspapers adapt to the digital age and look for more revenue, a new study suggests that their readers are more willing to support them with non-subscription revenue than publishers think.

That's what researchers found in Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas when they asked 106 rural publishers and people in rural areas (without a town of 10,000 or more population) about new ways to finance newspapers. They found "a clear disconnect between what revenue streams publishers are willing to implement and what revenue streams readers are potentially willing to endorse," says the paper, published in Journalism Research.

Teri Finneman

Teri Finneman of the University of Kansas, Patrick Ferrucci of the University of Colorado and Nick Mathews of the University of Missouri-Kansas City asked publishers about the viability of 16 possible revenue sources: print subscriptions, digital subscriptions, legal notices, other advertising, marketing services, graphic-design services, email newsletters, memberships (defined as a perk beyond a subscription), events, government support, grants, donations, foundations and other large donors, commercial printing, and sale of office supplies. The 414 readers (who were not necessarily readers of the surveyed publishers' papers) were asked about 12 sources: print subscriptions, digital subscriptions, advertising, taxpayer support, donations, events, memberships, email newsletters, marketing services, graphic design services, and office supplies and/or commercial printing.

The publishers' top four were advertising, print subscriptions, digital subscriptions and legal notices, all getting at least 70 percent support and the rest with less than 50 percent. Readers' top choice was events. "The popularity of this option is not surprising coming from rural areas where 'there’s nothing to do,' and arguably provides an opportunity for newspapers to fill a central community engagement role in person, not just in print," the researchers wrote. "The second option that rural residents were very likely or somewhat likely to support was print subscriptions, adding further evidence that print is still a mainstay in rural America."

Graph by The Daily Yonder, adapted by The Rural Blog, shows revenue preferences of rural newspaper publishers and rural readers (not necessarily of those publishers' newspapers) in Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

But the next three options — email newsletters, memberships and donations, all in the 40-50% range — were "a striking contrast to the publishers, who ranked e-newsletters and memberships toward the bottom of their choices. . . . the results of the reader survey overwhelmingly illustrate how community members would support their local news organizations in a multitude of manners not available to them currently."

Why didn't digital subscriptions score better with readers? "Many rural news organizations utilize digital subscriptions that are essentially only a PDF version of the print product," the researchers write, noting previous research that found "Readers, historically, find PDFs of newspapers not engaging, not something worth much time and, therefore, not innovative."

The paper is the completion of research discussed by Finneman at the second National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, where she revealed only data for North Dakota. At the third Summit, to be held in Lexington, Ky., July 7, Mathews will discuss the research and another project, looking at experimentation with new revenue sources by a small newspaper group in southeast Kansas.

Some car makers drop AM radios; stations react with PR campaign, citing AM's roles in communities, public safety

Retro is on at 12 noon on WLSD. (Image via WLSD website)

AM radio is being threatened with extinction. It stands for "amplitude modulation," most definitely not "automobile makers."

"As auto manufacturers expand their electric vehicle offerings, many new models will ship without AM radios," reports Matt Busse of Cardinal News in southwest Virginia. "Broadcasters and some public officials are pushing back, arguing AM radio is vital for distributing public safety information during emergencies."

Busse writes, "There are more than 130 AM radio stations in Virginia, including more than 60 operating in Southside, Southwest and the Alleghany Highlands. Now, those AM stations and others around the country face a new challenge: Some carmakers say they won't include AM radios in new vehicles, citing the availability of other listening options as well as interference between AM radio signals and the increasingly complex electronic systems such as those found in electric-only vehicles."

Radio station WLSD [named for Wise, Lee, Scott and Dickenson counties] serves as Busse's example: "Broadcasting at 1,000 watts on 1220 AM since it first signed on in 1953 [before the psychedelic drug LSD became widely known], WLSD has weathered numerous storms [including] competition such as satellite radio and digital streaming services." Adam Sturgill, the station's staff engineer and program director, told Busse, "We're providing a service still yet to the community. That's really what it's about, is doing the local ball games and being there for events in the towns and communities, so that's the one thing that helps keep it going."

"This month, the National Association of Broadcasters announced a public-relations campaign with a website, www.DependonAM.com, which features materials such as suggested scripts for radio stations to read on the air touting the importance of AM," Busse reports. "The NAB highlighted efforts by politicians such as Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., to keep AM radios in vehicles." Markey told Busse, "Although many automakers suggested that other communication tools – such as internet radio – could replace broadcast AM radio, in an emergency, drivers might not have access to the internet and could miss critical safety information."

Simultaneous broadcasting is an option. Busse reports, "Gary Burns owns 3 Daughters Media, which operates multiple AM stations. . . . he noted many AM stations, including his, already simultaneously broadcast on FM, a move encouraged by the Federal Communications Commission through its "AM Revitalization" effort." Burns told him, "The FCC, in anticipation of diminishing AM listenership, has made avenues available to the AM broadcast to see that their message can still get out."

Despite tech-savvy listeners and more options, Busse reports, "In many parts of the WLSD listening area, it can be difficult to stream anything on a phone in the car, Sturgill said. . . . Broadcast radio keeps motorists both entertained and informed, especially during situations such as severe storms that might knock out other forms of communication. . . . Sturgill, noted that the car manufacturers' recent decision is just the latest challenge AM radio has faced." Sturgill told Busse, "I don't think it's an attack on AM radio. . . . I think it's just a technical problem."

Animal-welfare activists may be actively surveying small beef farmers; N.Y. farmers on alert for trespassing and theft

Newfane, N.Y. (Wikipedia map)

Herd protection is on the minds of several small, New York-based beef farmers, but not because the animals are sick — because they might be stolen, reports Tom Venesky of Successful Farming. On a recent mid-April morning, "Paul Strobel, who operates a small market on his family beef farm in Newfane, N.Y., pop. 9,700, saw two people — a man and a woman — standing in his driveway with cellphones. They appeared to be taking video of his cattle, barns, gates and locks. Strobel ran to confront the intruders, but they jumped into a car and fled. . . . The Niagara County Sheriff's Office documented the incident, and Strobel learned that another farmer in the area reported two people with the same vehicle description."

The surveillance may stem from an April meeting of animal-welfare activists. "The day before the incident at Strobel's farm, the group Project Vegan 716 held a meeting at its Vegan Center in Tonawanda, which is 20 miles southwest of Newfane. California-based attorney Wayne Hsiung, who moderated a panel discussion at the meeting, said the event was held to promote 'open rescue,' which he said is 'the act of openly giving aid to animals who are suffering from neglect or abuse'," Venesky reports. "Newfane has been in the spotlight before for animal welfare activity. Last year, Tracy Murphy, owner of Asha’s Farm Sanctuary, was charged with larceny after two beef cattle from a nearby farm ended up on her property. Murphy refused to return the cattle and was charged."

Strobel and other area farmers are on high alert. He told Venensky, "We’re a small farm that raises beef, pork and vegetables for our retail market. It’s very unsettling to see people on your property taking video of your animals and buildings. . . . I’ve barely slept since this started. . . .  go out and patrol my farm at night because I don’t know what these people are going to do.” Niagara County Sheriff Mike Filicetti told Venesky, "Any illegal action taken by these individuals will be treated as criminal activity. The entering of private property, entering of buildings or stealing of livestock is a crime." Venesky reports, "Niagara County legislator Shawn Foti, whose district includes Newfane, called the surveillance and 'open rescue' discussion a 'real threat.' . . . Foti described the farms in his district as small, family-run operations that take pride in caring for livestock. Farmers don’t deserve the threats posed by the groups. . . .The entire concept of surveilling farms and conducting rescues presents a dangerous situation."

New York Sen. Rob Ortt (R) and Sen. George Borrello held a press conference at Strobel’s farm to condemn the 'open rescue' activity. . . . Ortt announced plans to introduce legislation to amend the law related to burglary in the second degree to include unlawfully entering or remaining on farmland with intent to commit a crime. . . . This would target those who enter farmland to steal livestock and create severe penalties for stealing livestock. . . . Ortt said, 'Let’s be clear. These are not advocates. These are extremists who believe they have a right to steal from our hard-working local farmers. . . .Our farmers have every right to protect their families, their businesses and their property.'" Strobel told Venesky, "These people are radicalized, and many came here from out of the area. It’s extremely dangerous. If this could happen in Newfane, it can happen to any farming community."

Feds slow to find suitable housing for hundreds displaced by planned Forest Service burn that got out of control

The Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire was easily visible from space. (NASA photo)

After two runaway fires set by the U.S. Forest Service destroyed 430 homes in rural New Mexico a year ago, the federal government acted so slowly that only a few people have been able to move into temporary housing, leaving others to dig into their own meager savings or stay on friends’ couches, reports Patrick Lohmann of Source New Mexico in partnership with ProPublica.

The Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire "rode 74-mph wind gusts, engulfing dozens of homes in a single day as it tore through canyons and over mountains," Lohmann recounts. "The blaze became the biggest wildfire in the continental United States in 2022 and the biggest in New Mexico history. And it was the federal government’s fault: An ill-prepared and understaffed crew didn’t properly account for dry conditions and high winds when it ignited prescribed burns meant to limit the fuel for a potential wildfire."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency found temporary housing to 140 households, but "The federal government has acted so slowly and maintained such strict rules that only about a tenth of them have moved in," Lohmann reports. "EMA says most of the 140 households it deemed eligible for travel trailers or mobile homes — essentially, people whose uninsured primary residences sustained severe damage — have found 'another housing resource.' What the agency doesn’t say: For some, that resource is a vehicle, a tent or a rickety camper. It’s a friend or relative’s couch, sometimes far from home. It’s a mobile home paid for with retirement funds or meager savings."

Lohmann tells several stories of residents suffering from the lack of permanent housing, writing, "The fire upended a constellation of largely Hispanic, rural communities that have cultivated their land and culture in the shadows of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains for hundreds of years. Many residents can find their family names on land grants issued by Mexican governors in the 1830s. Now they’re dispersed across the region, even out of state."