Details of stimulus for rural broadband getting closer scrutiny, raising questions

One way in which both the House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus bill look to improve rural America is by extending broadband access to areas that don't have it. But that plan has begun to attract criticism. "Some officials question the emphasis on expanding high-speed Internet access when many Americans cannot afford the service that is already available to them," reports Philip Brasher of The Des Moines Register.

According to Jim Harper, who follows telecommunications policy for the Cato Institute, "Equipment manufacturers will pocket a lot of the broadband money simply by raising their prices, and money is likely to be wasted because of the speed with which the grants and loans must be dispensed."

In Iowa there is evidence that access to broadband in rural areas will be underutilized. In that state rural areas have better access to broadband than more populate areas. Brasher adds, "Industry officials say the high-speed service often goes unused because elderly or low-income people don't pay for it." (Read more)

David Herszenhorn of The New York Times writes that the bill's "proponents say it will create jobs, build crucial infrastructure and fulfill a campaign promise of President Obama's: to expand the information superhighway to every corner of the land, giving local businesses an electronic edge and offering residents a dazzling array of services like online health care and virtual college courses. But experts warn that the $9 billion effort could become a cyberbridge to nowhere, representing mistakes lawmakers could make in rushing to approve one of the largest spending bills in history."

Herszenhorn adds, "Supporters simply cannot wave away the potential pitfalls, including the fact that it would take at least until 2015 to spend all the money on infrastructure to deliver the service — vastly limiting the stimulating punch. Already there has been sharp criticism of provisions in the Senate version that seem intended to benefit large Internet service providers, particularly Verizon, which could potentially claim hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits. ... Supporters of the measure say the potential benefits of broadband access outweigh any risks." (Read more)

"When broadband is available, rural communities put it to use — often in ways unimaginable to those in the cities (or in some offices in Congress)," says the Daily Yonder. "Broadband Internet service is being used for vital commercial purposes in rural America," Douglas Burns reports.

Saturday is new deadline to register for economic-development conference for journalists, others

Saturday, Feb. 7 is the new earlybird registration deadline for "REWRITE$: Main Street, Media and the Recovery," an economic-development conference for journalists and developers from the public and private sectors at Jacksonville State University in Alabama March 5-6.

The conference will feature an outstanding lineup of speakers, including three keynoters with ties to both journalism and economic development: David Bronner, CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, which owns Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. and Raycom Media, a group of television stations; Edgar Blatchford, a former mayor and state commissioner of commerce who founded a chain of rural newspapers, ran an Alaska Native Corporation, and now teaches journalism at the University of Alaska; and Jack Schultz of Agracel Inc. and Boomtown USA, a venture capitalist who writes and speaks regularly all over the U.S. about rural development.

Other speakers will include Brian Dabson, president and CEO of the Rural Policy Research Institute, who will discuss the rural economy, its prospects and key strategies for rural development; Will Lambe of the University of North Carolina, who will present real examples of successful small-town development; Vaughn Grisham of the McLean Institute for Community Development at the University of Mississippi and Lionel “Bo” Beaulieu of the Southern Rural Development Institute at Mississippi State University, who will discuss community-based economic development; Brian Mefford of Connected Nation, who will discuss the importance of broadband, which can spur rural development but poses challenges for traditional media; and several journalists, researchers, government officials and development financiers. The conference is supported by Jacksonville State, the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Delta Regional Authority.

Full descriptions of the program and logistics are available, on the Web site of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which is programming it by clicking here.

Reformer Hassebrook won't be Vilsack's deputy

According to sources close to him, Chuck Hassebrook, left, executive director of the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs will not be appointed deputy agriculture secretary. Hassebrook was pushed by individuals and groups that want the USDA to shift its support from agribuisnesses to smaller farms.

"Hassebrook was a favorite of those who favored deep reforms of farm payment and subsidy programs," reports Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder. Supporters of Hassebrook's appointment included the group Food Democracy Now, headed by writer Michael Pollan, and sustainable-agriculture advocate, author, essayist and poet Wendell Berry. Other suppoters inculded New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Daily Yonder correspondent Richard Oswald. In his blog Kristof writes, "The Obama administration needs to figure out how to make the Agriculture Department serve the interests of the entire country, not just the agribusiness tycoons, and Hassebrook would have been a way to turn the department into a bigger tent."

Some see this view as naive. Bishop adds, "Other writers see Hassebrook as a rural romantic who hasn't caught up with the current state of agriculture — big farms on large acreages operating very expensive equipment."

Hassebrook seems to be a casualty of the debate over the future of the USDA. With Secretary Tom Vilsack seen as neither a reformer or keeper of the status quo, the appointment of his deputy is at the center of the debate over the future farm policy. (Read more)

Farm Foundation Forum in D.C. Tuesday on wind energy; make reservations by Friday at 1 p.m.

Issues and challenges in the wind-energy industry will be the subject of the Farm Foundation Forum on Tuesday, Feb. 10, at the National Press Club in Washington, from 9 to 11 a.m. There is no charge to participate, but please RSVP by 1 p.m. EST Friday, Feb. 6, to Communications Director Mary Thompson at mary@farmfoundation.org.

Presenters at the forum will represent research and technology, local governments, energy producers and the energy industry: Ian Baring-Gould, National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Peggy Beltrone, commissioner, Cascade County, Montana; Mark Willers, Minwind, Luverne, Minn.; and John Holt, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Coffee will be available at 8:30 a.m. The press club is located at 529 14th St. NW.

U. of Minnesota study says corn ethanol takes heavier toll on environment, health than gasoline

A University of Minnesota study has found that corn ethanol can be worse than gasoline for health and the environment. "The study, released Monday, is the first one to estimate the economic costs to human health and well-being from three different fuels -- gasoline, corn-based ethanol and cellulosic (plant-based) ethanol," reports Tom Meersman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "Scientists and economists looked at life-cycle emissions of growing, harvesting, producing and burning different fuels, and concluded that ethanol made from switchgrass and other plant materials is far better than either corn ethanol or gasoline.

The environmental impact of the three fuels is measured by the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted in the production of the fuel. The health impact is measure by the amount of fine particulate matter released through the burning of fossil fuels. The study determined that the environmental and health cost of making gasoline is about 71 cents per gallon. Corn ethanol's final costs is said to be within a range of 72 cents to $1.45 per gallon. Cellulosic ethanol is the cheapest option, at 19 to 32 cents per gallon, depending on the technology and type of plants used in the process.

According to the study, "Much of the variance is because of a lack of consensus on the economic values of both climate stabilization and human health. While this affects the dollar value of cost estimates, it does not change the relative ranking among fuel alternatives." The environmental impact of corn ethanol varies because of the different biorefinery heat sources. When natural gas is used, the level of greenhouse gas released from corn-ethanol manufacturing drops. Inversely, the use of coal as a heat source increases the amount of greenhouse-gas emissions and fine particulate matter. The study notes, "Corn ethanol fares poorly relative to alternatives because it requires, per unit of fuel produced, more fossil fuel and fertilizer inputs."

The results of the study are not good news for the corn-ethanol industry, which has faced setbacks from fluctuation in demand as well as unstable corn prices. But Mark Hamerlinck, communications director for the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, told the STrib, "I'm stifling a yawn. It would be news if the university had anything positive to say about corn ethanol. It's how they make a living over there." There is hope for the industry. The study adds that, "Environmental costs per unit of ethanol decline with higher biomass yield, lower fertilizer and fuel inputs into biomass production, and improvements in biomass to biofuel conversion efficiency." (Read more)

Meth makers, using new methods, are on the rise

The latest evidence that methamphetamine is making a comeback comes from Indiana, where police found a third more meth labs last year than in 2007, some of them as small as soft-drink bottles, reports Angela Mapes Turner of The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne.

"The state police’s Fort Wayne district found the most labs in the state, more than double the previous year’s total," Turner writes, in a comprehensive story that is a good example of how to localize state statistics. "Noble County – historically one of the most active counties for meth production – led the state with 80 labs discovered."

Meth makers, constrained by laws and precautions limiting their access to ingredients, and increasing awareness of what meth labs smell like, have discovered a new way to make it, often in 2-liter drink bottles. The "one pot" or "shake and bake" method "produces less of the drug and doesn’t create as many noxious fumes as a typical meth lab," Turner reports. "The new production method is different but still dangerous. Vapors must be let out of the bottles or they can explode, and the chemicals can cause burns." (Read more)

UPDATE, Feb. 5: A study finds meth cost the nation $23.4 billion in 2005 and may have "an economic toll nearly as great as heroin and possibly more," Erik Eckholm reports for The New York Times. "Federal surveys suggest that the share of Americans using the drug in a given year has stabilized, at about 1 percent of the population over age 12, which is far higher than the rate for heroin but half the rate for cocaine." (Read more)

Kentucky Commission on Philanthropy organizes

Rural areas don't get their share of philanthropy, but one of the more rural states is taking steps to align public and private interests and pursue public-private partnerships to focus on big issues. That's how Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear put it in his order creating the Kentucky Commission on Philanthropy. The woman he named chair, Judith Clabes, president emeritus of the Scripps Howard Foundation, says she knows of no other state with such a group. It has 29 members, all private philanthropists or representatives of private philanthropic organizations from around the state.

At its first meeting in January, Clabes and nine members were elected to an executive committee that will conduct business between meetings. The other members are Scott David, executive director of the Ray B. Preston Family Foundation in Henderson; Laura Douglas, E.on-US Foundation in Louisville; William Engle III, trustee of the E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund in Hazard and a trustee of the new Hazard-Perry County Community Foundation; Tim Maloney, president and CEO of the Haile/USBank Foundation; Mike Philipps, Clabes' successor as president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Foundation; and Susan Zepeda, executive director of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

The commission's first work will be in the areas of early childhood education and child health. Beshear's executive order said the group should put its first focus on "our youngest citizens." Among other things, the order calls for the commission to "develop relationships and seek assistance from national foundations," and conduct studies and seminars, including a Summit on Philanthropy in June 2009. For Beshear's press release, which lists all the members, click here.

73 arrested in cockfighting ring in North Carolina

Officials in a rural community in central North Carolina cracked down on a large cockfighting operation last weekend. The Randolph County Sheriff's Office arrested 73 people at a tournament Saturday near Coleridge, a raid so big that The Associated Press wrote about it.

Kathi Keys of The Courier-Tribune in Asheboro writes that officials are hoping the arrest will send a message to others who think that small towns will let such activities slide. “When they picked rural Randolph County to conduct this criminal activity, they thought it wouldn’t matter in a rural area,” said Sheriff Maynard Reid. “They can’t do that in Randolph County.” (Read more)

Mostly dry Kentucky county supports two wineries

Pulaski County, Kentucky, in Kentucky's Appalachian foothills, has been historically been a "dry" county, with no alcohol sold legally. But the county is now home to two wineries, granted special exemptions to sell their product through countywide votes in 2003 and 2007. A recent article in The Commonwealth Journal of Somerset highlights the steady growth the two have enjoyed since being allowed to sell their wine by the glass, bottle or case. They have benefited from winery tourism, which has brought in out-of-state and international visitors, but say local support still accounts for about half their trade.

“Really the first three years has been a little better than our business plan expected,” said Zane Burton, who owns Sinking Valley Winery with his wife, Amy. “However, we didn’t get the growth last year that we expected.” They and Jeff Wiles, owner of Cedar Creek Vineyard and Winery, say they're just happy to have a chance to farm. “Opening Cedar Creek Vineyards is the combination of two of my life-long dreams, owning my own business and making a living off the land,” Wiles told reporter Susan Wheeldon. (Read more)

Pulaski County has gone "moist" in another way, with legalization of alcohol at restaurants in Burnside, on Lake Cumberland. After the city voted, it annexed eight miles of the lake to take in another boat dock on the big creek west of still-dry Somerset, which lies between Burnside and its little satellite. (Encarta map)

Rural schools group looks at corporal punishment

January's Rural Policy Matters, the newsletter of The Rural School and Community Trust, focused on issues of discipline in rural schools. Corporal punishment is allowed in 21 states, most of which have significant rural populations. The map shows those in peach and red, the latter group those reporting with more than 1,000 students experiencing corporal punishment during the 2006-2007 school year.

The newsletter highlights a recent study from Human Rights Watch called "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools," to illustrate the prevalence of paddlings in rural schools: "This is one of the few reports on education you will read where the word 'rural' appears 83 times in 125 pages, nearly five times as often as the words 'urban' and 'suburban' combined." The study also noted that corporal punishment affected a disproportionate number of African-American students, who received almost 36 percent of corporal punishment but are only 17 percent of the nation's students.

Rural Policy Matters also includes an explanation of how records required by the No Child Left Behind Act can be studied to determine disciplinary patterns, and a discussion of the legal guidelines that govern all school discipline in the U.S. (Read more)

Digital TV vote delayed; Republicans question flexibility on switch, warning of interference

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on the bill to delay the transition to digital TV, not Tuesday, House Democratic leadership aides told TV Week.

The bill, which the Senate passed without dissent, would delay the mandatory switch to June 12 from Feb. 17. It gained a majority in the House last week, but not the two-thirds needed to pass it under expedited procedures.

Republicans, whose votes blocked the bill, "questioned reassurances given in the Senate that the legislation would allow TV stations the choice of switching early rather than waiting until June 12," reports TV Week's Ira Tenowitz. They suggested that few stations would switch early, out of fear of interference with their signals." (Read more)

Most-read items on The Rural Blog last week

Whitt, 'redneck journalist' who won Pulitzer, dies
Landmark papers to furlough staffers for five days
Appalled, an editor pleads with readers: Shape up!
Georgia governor gets $21 million loan from farm credit bank with relatively little collateral

Feb. 2 should be remembered for something besides a groundhog and his shadow

Today is known only as Groundhog Day, made famous by an animal and its shadow, but should also be remembered as the anniversary of a little-noticed event that was pivotal in the shaping of America.

"On Feb. 2, 1789, James Madison [right] was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from an eight-county district in central Virginia that Patrick Henry had designed to keep Madison out of the First Congress," writes Richard Labunski, a journalism professor at the University of Kentucky. "If Madison had lost, the Bill of Rights would not have been added to the Constitution then, or perhaps ever, and the nation’s history would have been very different." (Image from University of Connecticut)

Labunski is author of James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights, published by Oxford University Press and part of its “Pivotal Moments in American History” series, and is now in paperback. The book tells the fascinating story of how the shy and sickly Madison overcame one obstacle after another to see the Bill of Rights become part of the Constitution.

California carbon standard problematic for biofuels

As California moves ahead with plans to set auto-mileage standards that exceed the federal standard, it is the state's proposed carbon-fuel standard has the biofuel industry concerned. While the use of biofuels, such as corn ethanol, releases far less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the California standard would include the land used to raise biofuel crops.

"The problem for the biofuel industry is that California officials are including in their calculations the impact of biofuels on land use, on the assumption that using cropland for production of biofuels requires breaking new lands somewhere else to maintain food supplies," reports Philip Brasher of The Des Moines Register. "The theory is that for every additional acre of cropland that's devoted to biofuels in this nation, land must be cleared in Brazil or somewhere else to grow corn or soybeans."

Without land-use considerations, biofuels are an appealing option to burning gasoline. "Corn ethanol would be rated as having two-thirds the carbon emissions of gasoline," said Brooke Coleman, executive director of the New Fuels Alliance, which represents companies developing next-generation biofuels. "But with the land-use analysis included, ethanol comes out slightly worse than gasoline." (Read more)

Haggard back on concert trail after lung cancer

Merle Haggard is getting back to business after battling lung cancer, and the Los Angeles Times profiled the "Okie from Muskogee" as the country music legend prepares to get back to performing concerts. Haggard, diagnosed last year, says he's cancer-free after November surgery. "I got real lucky, I tell you," he says. "They got in there, they got it all, and there wasn't nothin' else in there . . . I didn't have to do no chemo, no radiation, I just had to heal up. How lucky can you get?"

With more than 100 singles to his name, "Haggard's good stuff has included resonant portraits of people struggling to make a living, to do the right thing, or to live with the consequences when they've failed," messages that resonate especially clearly in this economy, writes Randy Lewis. And the singer, who has covered a number of political issues over the years, says that while he didn't vote for President Obama he doesn't miss the significance of his election. "We're probably guilty of living up to the Constitution for the first time in the history of America, which is really something to say," Haggard said.

Haggard moved to California in the 1970s, in order to get away from Nashville life. He lives on a remote homestead with his wife, Teresa, and their two teenaged children. Lewis notes that while he was at the musician's home, Teresa was out on a tractor, plowing for a vegetable and fruit garden. Haggard's dream is to put solar energy panels on 100 acres of his land. "We could generate enough to power about 700 homes. What better thing could you do with your land than that?" (Read more)

Advocates call for a new Civil Conservation Corps to fix up the national parks

In 1933, when the U.S. was struggling through the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was designed to put young men to work on infrastructure projects in the national park system. Now "some in Congress and elsewhere are reaching back to embrace Roosevelt's Depression-era strategy by calling for a similar parks restoration program to be included in President Obama's economic stimulus plan," reports Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times. "The House version of the bill has $2.25 billion earmarked for projects in parks." The Senate version of the bill is being debated and a vote is expected soon. (Times photo)

There are a considerable number of "shovel-ready projects" in the nation's 391 parks. In fact, there is a maintenance backlog of more than $8.7 billion. Cart writes,"Investing stimulus funds in parks would create about 50,000 jobs." The National Parks Conservation Association studied the economic impact of parks, particularly in rural areas, finding that every dollar spent at a park generates $4 in benefit, Cart reports. (Read more)

Delta Queen will become a Chattanooga hotel as owners try to revive overnight-cruise exemption

Back in July, we reported the fight over the Delta Queen, the last remaining steam-powered sternwheeler providing overnight service in the U.S. Last week, it was announced that the floating landmark will find a new home and purpose as a Chattanooga hotel.

Service was discontinued on the Delta Queen after Congress declined to extend its U.S. Coast Guard exemption, which allowed overnight passengers despite the boat's wooden framework (mitigated by advanced safety features and a great safety record). "Ambassadors International Inc., its California-based owner, and a group of enthusiasts organized as Save the Delta Queen are continuing to pursue the exemption so that it can return to cruising the Mississippi and Ohio rivers," where it had several rural ports of call, writes Bartholomew Sullivan in The Commercial Appeal of Memphis.

The boat is being rented to Chattanooga Water Taxi and Fat Cat Ferry and will be moved from New Orleans to its new home early this month. The company's owner, Harry Phillips, has pledged his commitment to carefully preserving the boat, in hopes that the exemption will be eventually granted, saying "We're going to take good care of her." (Read more; for previous coverage of the Delta Queen, click here.)

UPDATE, Feb. 5: Sullivan reports that the Delta Queen "will take the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway through Mississippi until it reaches the Tennessee River. ... Mid-Southerners desiring a glimpse ... could see it Sunday at approximately 8:40 p.m. passing under the U.S. 72 bridge near Iuka in Tishomingo County[, Mississippi]. ... The time is a best estimate."

Expecting stimulus, some states plan to cut taxes to attract jobs; some plan rural spending cuts

"Rising unemployment has touched off a race among state governors to woo companies with tax breaks and financial incentives, even as budget shortfalls force cuts in education, health care and other services," Reports Stephanie Simon of The Wall Street Journal. This news has important implications for rural areas, which are often more dependent on state programs.

While states will get money from the economic stimulus plan being debated in the Senate, some governors think it won't be enough and are asking legislatures for new financial incentives to attract and retain jobs. "Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, calls for an expansive package of business tax cuts, including tax-free zones for companies that create 'green jobs,' Simon writes. "Other states are considering establishing multimillion-dollar loan funds for entrepreneurs, phasing out the corporate income tax, and pledging financial backing to banks willing to extend lines of credit to small businesses."

The stratgey has critics on the right and left, Simon notes. "For many years, wooing jobs with cash was viewed as a 'poor-state strategy,' deployed mostly by states in the deep South that couldn't offer corporations well-developed infrastructure or a well-educated work force. In the 1980s, more states began to test the waters. The 1990s saw a pell-mell rush by states to one-up one another. ... Analysts have tried to measure benefits of incentive programs -- with contradictory results. Nearly every state can point to impressive corporate investments brought in with the help of incentives. But it's tough to determine how much a given company's business strategy is shaped by the goody bags states dangle."

But most of the current debate is about spending cuts. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, plans to cut 1,300 state jobs "and eliminate or trim dozens of programs," Simon writes, including "A $14.6 million cut for university extension courses, a $3.4 million cut for rural health care, and a $250,000 cut for early-childhood literacy programs." (Read more) In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants to cut funding for the state fair and turn over wetland regulation to the federal government, The Detroit News reports. (To read more, click here and here)

Southwest Virginia county, partly zoned and partly not, considers countywide land-use planning

Only three of Virginia's 92 counties have no zoning, but zoning is countywide in 88 counties, not 89. The outlier is Franklin County, along the east side of the Blue Ridge south of Roanoke, where four of the districts are zoned and the other three are not, under a "gentlemen's agreement" that was "based at least in part on which politicians liked zoning and which ones saw it as governmental intrusion" when the county adopted land-use planning more than 20 years ago, reports Janelle Rucker of The Roanoke Times. Now, as increased development makes the seven county supervisors think about revamping their land-use plan, they are talking again about zoning the three "rural and more topographically challenging districts," Rucker writes.

"Re-examining the zoning ordinances is typical in many communities," Rucker writes after interviewing Neil Holthouser, the director of planning and community development. "It's a way of seeing if the ordinances are still working the way they're supposed to and if there are new needs that require changes, Holthouser said. But anytime the county wades back into a zoning discussion, it's hard to ignore the fact that some Franklin County residents must adhere to zoning regulations and others do not."

Leland Mitchell, whose Snow Creek District (dark green on map; click to enlarge) isn't zoned, told Rucker, "Before we get countywide zoning, we need to get what is zoned under control." The other non-zoned disricts are Blue Ridge and Blackwater, on the west side.

Zoning is one of the most controversial subjects local officials can handle. Rucker's story is a good glimpse of how one county is dealing with it, and with an unusual situation. To read it, click here.

Newspapers counter bad news to tell their story, share ideas for dealing with the digital revolution

Newspapers have been obliged to be the messengers of their own distress, because the industry's turmoil is news. But a small group of newspaper executives is trying to tell another story, that "Newspapers and their online offspring combined are more popular than ever imagined," writes Bill Ketter, right, chief news executive of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.

"Media reports nearly always paint a portrait of an industry gasping for air in the digital age," Ketter writes. "This wrongheaded perception stems from the economic recession that’s affected all advertising-based businesses, and from the myth that newspapers no longer attract the public support they once enjoyed." In fact, the audience for newspaper Web sites rose 12 percent in 2008, the Newspaper Association of America said in a recent post on the new site NewspaperProject.org.

The site says it was created "to support a constructive exchange of information and ideas about the future of newspapers. While we acknowledge the challenges facing the newspaper industry in today’s rapidly changing media world, we reject the notion that newspapers — and the valuable content that newspaper journalists provide — have no future." Recent posters include several industry leaders, and the group is now inviting posts offering "perspective on what newspaper companies can do to survive and thrive in the years ahead." E-mail them at newspaperproject.editor@gmail.com with questions, comments, articles or resource links.

"Monday, the group will launch a series of print and online ads telling, among other facts, the story of how American newspapers and their Web sites daily reach 100 million people, more than watched Sunday’s Super Bowl," Ketter reports. "The ads will appear in major newspapers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, and also in scores of community dailies," including the 89 Ketter helps oversee at CNHI. For his detailed explanation of the project, click here.