N.D. town's effort to attract residents flounders from small-town cliquishness, extreme isolation

We've often followed the attempts of rural communities to attract young families and cancel out the so-called rural brain drain, but not all families have enjoyed "going rural." One family, transplanted from Miami to small-town Hazelton, N.D., hoped to gain a much-needed rest from big-city stress but instead found a tight-knit community wary of outsiders, James MacPherson of The Associated Press reports. "It's been quite an experience, 50-50 at best," Michael Tristani, whose family is now looking to leave Hazelton, told MacPherson. "It hasn't been easy. No one really wants new people here."

"Rural communities across the Great Plains, fighting a decades-long population decline, are trying a variety of ways to attract outsiders," MacPherson writes. "But the Tristanis show how the efforts can fail even at a time when many people are desperate." The Hazelton Development Corp. began its campaign in 2005 by offering families up to two free lots and $20,000 toward home purchases and businesses free lots and up to $50,000 for coming to town. "Besides cash and free land, Hazelton had little else to offer except elbow room," MacPherson writes.

The community received inquiries from around the country, but only the Tristanis made the move. Their experience was complicated by threats of vandalism from owners of a competing local coffee shop. The loss of the Tirstanis' two children would hurt the local high school, which currently has 72 students, but the superintendent expects that number to fall to 31 in four years. Hazelton's extreme remoteness may be one factor in the failure of the program. A spokeswoman for the rural advocacy group Center for Rural Affairs told MacPherson rural land-incentives usually only work in communities within 30 minutes of a larger town. (Read more)

USDA to repay student loan debt of veterinarians who set up practices in areas short of vets

Last week we updated you on the shortage of veterinarians in rural America. Now the U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a new program to combat that trend. Friday, Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the department would begin repaying student loan debt for qualified veterinarians that offer their services is an area suffering from a vet shortage.

"USDA can help ensure there is a first line of defense against animal diseases across the United States by placing qualified veterinarians in areas where there is a critical need," Vilsack said in a news release. "This program will help reduce veterinary shortages, especially in the area of food animal medicine, which will reduce stress on producers and improve the health of the livestock industry." The Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program will be administered by USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The program began in January when NIFA began compiling a register of shortage areas.

The program expects to begin accepting applications from interested vets by the end of April, and will repay up to $25,000 in student-loan debt in exchange for three years of service in a shortage area. NIFA has set a tentative application due date for June 30 and expects to issue offers by September 30. (Read more)

Some big media firms push investigations and legal action, but smaller outlets are demurring

Some large media companies have ratcheted up their investigative reporting and open records request despite plummeting newspaper revenue, Tim Arango of The New York Times reports. But while companies like Hearst Newspapers and The Associated Press continue to file dozens of open-records requests and appeal denials, smaller newspapers may be abandoning some investigative reporting as their budgets shrink.

"Many regional newspapers are choosing not to spend money on lawyers or are asking them to work pro bono," Arango writes. "The efforts of Hearst and the AP contrast with the state of affairs at a smaller level, where regional and local papers have largely shied away from aggressive litigation — and, in many cases, aggressive investigative reporting."

The University of Missouri's Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, added, "I’ve got to say, there’s a heck of a gap between the Hearsts of the world and all these community newspapers scattered across the country." Lucy Dalglish, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told Arango a group of media lawyers at a recent meeting in Florida told her access litigation was really struggling as newspapers more frequently ask for pro-bono work: "Newspapers say, when push comes to shove, we’ll get lawyers to do it for free." (Read more)

Dodge City reporter found in contempt agrees to testify after her source reveals himself

A Kansas reporter has agreed to appear in court after her confidential source revealed himself following a judge's contempt ruling against the reporter. Dodge City Daily Globe reporter Clair O'Brien was subpoenaed by Ford County Attorney Terry Malone to reveal a confidential source, but O'Brien refused to appear in court Friday, leading District Judge Daniel Love to issue a contempt ruling and her newspaper to forsake her. After her source revealed himself to Malone this weekend, O'Brien showed up for court Monday and apologized for her decision to ignore the subpoena. (See previous report on the subpoena)

"He was moved by his own moral convictions — the only thing that could have evoked those was me demonstrating my moral convictions to that extent ... when he saw I was willing to pay the whole price," O'Brien told The Associated Press. "Hopefully it will show the Legislature how hopelessly tangled this situation can become without a clear statute showing the way." Doug Anstaett, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, told AP some state legislators have approached his group for help making Kansas the 36th state with a shield law. (Read more)

The Ezzell family of The Canadian Record, in Canadian, Texas, win the 2007 Tom and Pat Gish Award

The Ezzell family of The Canadian Record, a weekly newspaper in Canadian, Texas, are this year’s winners of the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism.

Laurie Brown Ezzell, and her mother, Nancy Ezzell

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues established the award to honor the couple who this winter celebrated their 50th anniversary of publishing the Eagle. The Gishes were the first recipients of the award. Their son, Eagle Editor Ben Gish, was among the judges who unanimously voted to give the award to the Ezzell family.

“The Ezzells clearly demonstrate the tenacity, courage and integrity I've been privileged to witness in growing up around and working with my parents,” Gish said. Other judges agreed.

Author and former Los Angeles Times Washington correspondent Rudy Abramson, chairman of the Institute’s advisory board and a longtime friend of the Gishes, said “One cannot but notice a number of similarities between the Ezzell family and the Gish family, not the least of which is the continuity their newspaper represents in their community.”

Tom and Pat Gish, owners of The
Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky.

Retired publisher Al Smith, an Institute founder and its steering-committee chair, said: “The story of this gutsy Texas family is as comparable to the Gishes of Kentucky as anyone could imagine.” The Canadian Record has held local, state and national politicians accountable, fought political extremism, opposed unwise military adventures and helped protect the environment, often against organized and violent opposition. All are “great examples of courage, tenacity and integrity,” Smith said.

Nan Ezzell and Laurie Ezzell Brown received the award Friday, April 20, at a dinner for which the guest speaker will be John Seigenthaler Sr., founder of the First Amendment Center. The dinner was part of the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America. Carl West, editor of The State Journal in Frankfort, Ky., attended and wrote a column about the Gishes and the Ezzells. Here's an excerpt::

"The Gishes are practically legends in Eastern Kentucky where their Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg took on the powers that be on hot-button issues such as strip mining, government secrecy and corrupt politicians in the face of death threats and arson, to mention a couple. No one’s surprised there’s a national award in light of they’ve done with the Mountain Eagle ("It Screams") and survived doing it.

"The Canadian Record stands tall in the Gishes’ shadow. . . . Ben, a co-publisher with his wife, died in 1993. He made his mark for fearlessness and character early. A mayoral candidate, upset with an Ezzell editorial, beat him up. Ezzell was hospitalized with a concussion, among other injuries. The publisher took it all with humor, though, contending at the time the aspiring but hot-headed politician was trying to express "a legitimate editorial opinion the best way he knew how" with his fists.

"The test of integrity stemmed from news The Canadian was fixing to run of a dispute between the school board and a banker to whom Ezzell was indebted and who tried to kill the story. Ezzell faced a crossroad: "Either I would run the paper or the bank would," Ezzell wrote long after the incident. "… I owed money to the bank ... but not my soul." Ezzell published the story. The banker later joined him in an effort to salvage the town’s economy after a major employer left."

Texas editor: ‘Courage comes in many flavors’

In her remarks at the Gish Award Dinner, Laurie Ezzell Brown spoke of her father's courage and that of other people in Canadian and Hemphill County, Texas, including an Air Force reservist and friend who was called back to active duty in Iraq last month.

"We communicate via e-mail on occasion," she said. "A former Canadian school trustee, David expressed great relief in a recent e-mail that he was no longer on the board — as he has frequently, since retiring from that office last year. At issue this week is a $3 million indoor athletic facility, part of a $5 million capital improvement project using voter-approved bonds. Trouble is, the voters didn’t know, nor were they told, that well over half of that would go toward an athletic facility.

"Following a detailed report of the project in last week’s Record, and an editorial critical of it, board members were inundated with calls opposing such extravagance. Many of those callers attended Tuesday’s board meeting to speak and to stand witness. Their protests were effective. The facility was voted down by a somewhat reluctant 6-1 majority. But the irony of my friend David’s relief at being in the volatile Iraq war zone working as a flight navigator, rather than sitting through another heated school board debate, was not lost on me. Courage comes in all flavors.

"Many of the citizens who called their board members, and who also called me, had much to fear. Their children are their greatest point of vulnerability, and where are children more defenseless than in our public schools, where angry administrators or teachers, or worse—coaches—can exact their retribution. In doing so, they demonstrated courage — and gave their children a priceless lesson."

Publishers of Mountain Eagle get award named for them

Tom and Pat Gish receive their
namesake award.

Tom and Pat Gish, publishers of The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., accepted on Feb. 28, 2005 the first Gish Award, which the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues will give to rural journalists who demonstrate courage, tenacity and integrity often needed to render public service through journalism. The award was presented at the Institute's first conference for journalists, on covering health care and health in Central Appalachia, at the University of Kentucky's Center for Rural Health in Hazard, Ky. The following article is adapted from the tribute to the Gishes at the presentation of the award.

By Rudy Abramson, Advisory Board Chair, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

On November 22, 1956, The Mountain Eagle carried a front page story reporting that W. P. Nolan and his wife Martha had sold the newspaper they had published since 1938 to Tom and Pat Gish.

Tom was a Whitesburg boy who had made good. Ever since graduating from journalism school at the University of Kentucky he had worked for the old United Press, mostly covering the state capital of Frankfort. Pat, a Paris, Ky., girl, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of UK and a former editor of the Kentucky Kernel, had been a reporter for the old Lexington Leader, covering a variety of beats for eight years.

The Mountain Eagle purchased by the Gishes was an unremarkable, fairly typical weekly paper. Its masthead accurately proclaimed it “A Friendly Non-Partisan Weekly Newspaper Published Every Thursday.” To give you its flavor, I will read you the lead from its story at the top of Page 1 not long before Tom and Pat bought it:

“On Thursday, March 4, the Kiwanis Club of Jenkins has the pleasure of presenting Mr. P.L. McElroy, vice president of Consolidation Coal Company, Pittsburgh, Pa., who will deliver a lecture entitled, ‘The Future of Coal.’ . . . Mr. McElroy is well versed on all phases of the coal industry and is thoroughly qualified to speak on all aspects of our most abundant natural resource.”

There was no reason for folks in Whitesburg to expect that new ownership at the Eagle portended great change. But that’s exactly what was in store.

The Gishes had put out just two issues of their paper when Whitesburg, Hazard, and other communities were devastated by the worst flooding in a generation. Their coverage was fantastic. It equaled that of the Lexington and Louisville papers and it followed up on the story long after the city papers had forgotten it.

But notwithstanding the natural disaster, there was not a lot of obvious breaking news in Whitesburg and Letcher County in the late 1950s, and the so the Gishes turned to seriously covering the business of public agencies. They had not bought the Eagle with a strategy of launching crusades, but they quickly found themselves in an inevitable role of crusaders.

In those days in Whitesburg, as in many iPublishers of Mountain Eagle get award named for them if not most small towns of Appalachia and elsewhere, public business was conducted with little public knowledge. Tom and Pat surprised city and county officials by showing up for their meetings. They surprised them even more when they began to report what was said and done, and this went against the grain of a lot of them.

The county school board, for instance, was the biggest public employer in the county. It had its meetings in a little room with seating space only for its members. Citizens who had business with the board were called in one at a time. Often they were dismissed with their issue left to be addressed by the board in private. No doubt to the astonishment of board members, Pat Gish began standing in a corner through these meetings and reporting the proceedings in the Eagle.

It didn’t take long for the board to adopt a resolution saying press coverage of its meeting was not permitted, and it didn’t take long for other public agencies to follow suit.

But this outrage was only the beginning. There followed, as most of you know, efforts to drive the Gishes out of business with advertising boycotts, competition, and eventually even arson.

The doctor who delivered Tom Gish into the world was the school board chairman and the political boss of Letcher County, and he put out word that school board employees were not to buy the Mountain Eagle. Along Main Street in Whitesburg, word was spread that Tom was a Communist. The Eagle lost for all time its major advertiser, an automobile dealer, which had been largely responsible for keeping the paper’s books in the black.

All of this took place at an extraordinary time. Appalachia’s wartime and post-war coal boom had collapsed. Throughout the fifties, families left Whitesburg and Letcher County in droves. The population had fallen by half, and thriving communities, such as Seco where Tom Gish grew up, withered away.

Mechanization of the mines not only threw tens of thousands of miners out of work, it brought environmental havoc to the mountains.

The Gishes’ Mountain Eagle, having replaced its “Friendly Bipartisan Newspaper” label with the defiant slogan, “It Screams,” became perhaps the country’s most defiant, most consistent, and most compelling voice against strip and auger mining in Appalachia.

The Eagle pulled no punches.

In 1960, its editorial leveled scathing criticism at Bert Combs, a mountain neighbor who would long be regarded as one of Kentucky’s most progressive governors, for failing to take a stronger stand against strip mining and for doing too little to address the economic distress of the mountains.

There were times when anarchy and insurrection loomed. The National Guard had to be sent in to prevent violence in the coal fields; The Eagle reported meetings in which citizens seriously suggested withdrawing from the state.

One Mountain Eagle editorial opined, “If five or ten thousand Letcher county residents went to Frankfort and pitched tents on the governor’s lawn and stayed until he put in an appearance, Combs might pay some attention to us.” Perhaps anyone who presumes to teach journalism in Appalachia ought to require a reading of editorials in The Mountain Eagle during the bad old days of the Sixties.

It quickly became one of the first news organizations to charge the federal government itself — specifically, the Tennessee Valley Authority — with being one of the major causes of strip mining.

Wikipedia photo

With the publication of Harry Caudill’s Night Comes to the Cumberlands in 1963, the ravages of strip mining, mountain poverty, and the condition of schools became national news stories, and Whitesburg became a frequent destination for magazine and newspaper reporters and television crews.

Readers of the Mountain Eagle were already familiar with places such as Beefhide Creek, which Caudill made famous. They already knew about TVA coal contracts that accelerated the spread of strip mining across Appalachia. They already knew about the deplorable condition of schools. Letcher County had nearly 70 one and two room schools when the Gishes began writing about the system, and The Eagle called most of them unfit for human habitation. Tom bitingly observed that Albert Einstein would have lacked qualification to teach algebra at Whitesburg High School.

In November 1963, shortly after the publication of Caudill’s book, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Homer Bigart traveled the hollows and mountain roads of Eastern Kentucky and wrote that Christmas would find many citizens facing serious hunger. His article brought an outpouring of food and clothing from across the country and became a landmark as the federal government considered an economic aid program for Appalachia. Interestingly, four years before Bigart’s article, a piece in the Mountain Eagle had begun with almost the same sentence: “ Many Letcher County homes will miss a visit from Santa Claus this year unless some of Santa’s helpers get to work immediately. Some may even do without a Christmas Day.”

The Gishes faced good times and bad together as Pat Gish
types away and daughter Kitty helps.

As the national press, the White House, and Congress discovered Appalachian poverty, Tom Gish and Harry Caudill became the most prominent spokesmen for the region. Caudill’s law office and the Gishes’ newspaper office became the places outside reporters went first for tips, for information, and for quotes.

Bill Bishop, a 1970s Mountain Eagle reporter who now writes for the Austin American-Statesman, remembers the day after the 1976 Scotia mine disaster when a New York Times reporter arrived in Whitesburg on deadline. The pages for the next day’s Mountain Eagle were already made up and were about to be loaded into Tom’s car and taken to the press. The Timesman grabbed and phone and dictated a story directly from the article written for the next day’s Eagle.

Not surprisingly, a great many local people deeply resented the national spotlight, and some blamed Gish and Caudill for negative portrayals. One local official threatened a BBC film crew filming citizens lined up to receive government food handouts. Later, a producer for a Canadian television crew was shot to death.

Through it all the Gishes remained stubbornly undaunted. Jim Branscome, who was the point man in pressuring TVA to open its board meetings when he was a young stringer in Knoxville for the Eagle, still recalls arriving in Whitesburg the day after an arsonist hired by a Whitesburg policeman had torched the newspaper’s offices. He went to the Gishes’ house and there sat Tom on the porch hunched over a typewriter, composing a story for the next issue. The issue appeared on schedule, with a famously altered motto on its masthead: "It still screams."

“Here he was not far away from his heart attack, having quit a five pack a day habit,” Branscome recalled recently. “And here he was determined to get out a few pages, just to let all the bastards know the Eagle was still screaming. Was it an incredible act of courage, commitment, or just plain mountain stubbornness? I still haven’t figured out the proportions of these three things, but I am leaning toward the last one as explaining a lot.”

It should also be said that The Mountain Eagle has done much more than fight for open access, expose strip mining, and expose corruption.

Every reporter and editor who came to work at the paper was instructed that the community columns by Siller Brown, Mabel Kiser and the other columnists who reported the illnesses, doings, and deaths from Millstone, Neon, and elsewhere around the county were not to be touched. Community columns continue to be an Eagle mainstay even though Mabel and others who first worked for the Gishes have gone to their rewards.

It’s very hard to sum up Tom and Pat. I have not even touched upon the things they’ve done outside the Eagle, the fine family they have reared, or their contributions such as Tom’s work on behalf of education in Kentucky, including a term on the state school board.

Others who presented awards to them have talked of many of the same things I have mentioned here. But the most cogent statement I have seen was sent to me last week by Tom Bethell, another fine editor and journalist who worked at the Eagle during the turbulent sixties, and I would like to quote him:

“They have produced week after week, nearly 3,000 times so far, a living, breathing, working definition of what good rural journalism is all about. They have always paid close attention to what could be described, wrongly, as the small stuff. In the pages of the Eagle you can count on knowing when the redbuds are blossoming and how the mist looks on Pine Mountain, who has come home for the holidays, who owes back taxes, and who has died.”

Recalling how the Eagle covered TVA, the War on Poverty, the Vietnam War, and the Watergate caper, Bethell went on: “One of the many reasons why Tom and Pat are great journalists is that they have always understood that there is almost no such thing as a strictly local story, and they have been willing to follow the story wherever it takes them. That, surely, should be a model and a mantra for rural journalists wherever they are.”

Over the past several years, the Gish team has received awards from professional associations, universities, civic organizations, and other publications, and national honors named for people from Helen Thomas to Elijah Lovejoy. Now, the fledgling Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues institutes an award — maybe we should call it a Prize — named for the Gishes.

From time to time, it will be bestowed upon a person or persons considered to have demonstrated the courage and tenacity that have made Tom and Pat icons of community journalism, and that are often necessary to render public service through journalism in rural America.

Frankly, I think this overlooks an even more important Gish trait — integrity. It has been their personal integrity that has made their courage, commitment, and tenacity so meaningful.

And so, I am honored to present the first Tom and Pat Gish Award to its namesakes — two great journalists, two fine people, and two sterling citizens of Appalachia and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Tom and Pat Gish in 2005, when the award named for
them was started and they became the first recipients.

GOP using coal country fears against incumbents

Anxieties about jobs and possible environmental legislation have become a focal point for Republican campaigns aimed at incumbent Democrats in the coalfields. "With Democrats holding total control of the federal government and a cap-and-trade bill still looming, the GOP is fanning widespread coal country fears that the national Democratic Party is hostile to the coal mining industry, if not outright committed to its demise," Jonathan Martin of Politco reports. Democrats in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Ohio are among the targets.

In West Virginia, 17-term Rep. Nick Rahall and 14-term Rep. Alan Mollahan have come under attack for what Republicans view as a weak defense of coal interests. Former state Supreme Court judge Elliott "Spike" Maynard, who switched parties to challenge Rahall, told Martin, "Our part of the world and way of life is threatened by liberal Democrats in Washington." Rahall and Mollahan both voted against the House energy bill, but Republicans say that was only because the Democrats already had enough votes for the bill to pass.

In Kentucky, Bluegrass-area Rep. Ben Chandler voted for cap-and-trade, which Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues Director Al Cross told Martin was the reason Republican Mike Templeman, a recently retired coal company CEO, entered an already busy primary race. In Southwest Virginia, Rep. Rick Boucher is likely facing his toughest race since his first re-election in 1974, Martin writes. In eastern Ohio, freshman Rep. John Boccieri and second-term Rep. Zack Space are facing similar fights because of their support for cap-and-trade. (Read more)

Census can't find takers in Northern Michigan

Michigan is having trouble finding rural census workers. How is your community doing? In Muskegon County, where a U.S. Census Bureau office is housed, plenty of workers have applied, but not in other areas covered by the office. "Our biggest problem areas are the great white north, in the very isolated tracts," Greg Debniak, manager of the Muskegon office, told John S. Hausman of the Muskegon Chronicle. "A lot of those areas are woefully short. So we’re redoubling our (recruitment) efforts up there."

In a region with some of the highest unemployment in the nation, Debniak was surprised to be short on applicants, Hausman reports. Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Osceola, Lake, Newaygo and Mecosta counties are covered by the office, and most of the jobs are for "so-called 'enumerators' who will knock on doors of people who don’t return mailed questionnaires, among other duties," Hausman writes. Some enumerators also do counts in at institutions, such as prisons, hospitals, dormitories, group homes and assisted-living centers. (Read more)

Census pay in Michigan ranges from $11.25 per hour in northern Michigan to $16 per hour in Detroit, Dustin Dwyer of Michigan Public Radio reports. Debniak told Dwyer the problem isn't just isolated to his office, but also affects many other rural northern counties. (Read more)

How does your county rank in fast food outlets?

As First Lady Michelle Obama launches her "Let's Move" campaign targeted at childhood obesity, the number of fast food restaurants per capita is one area worth looking at. New data from the Food Environment Atlas show 22 rural U.S. counties have more than 1½ fast food restaurants per 1,000 people, the Daily Yonder reports. The atlas, released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, is a "tool for providing a spatial overview of a community’s ability to access healthy food and its success in doing so."

San Juan County, Colo. (Wikipedia map), leads the country by a wide margin with 7.117 fast food restaurants per 1,000 people (four restaurants and a population of 558), the Yonder reports in a Top 50 list. A quick glance at the Yonder map below suggests that tourism and highways have a lot to do with a high rate.

The Yonder also has county-level maps for pounds of meat and poultry eaten per person, gallons of soft drinks consumed per person, pounds of fruits and vegetables eaten per person and the percentage of obese adults. A great source for some local reporting on a national problem that in many cases is a local problem.

Residents of 13 states average spending more than $500 each per year on fast food. The data often relate to diabetes, obesity and lack of phyisical activity, as measured by continuing national surveys. Five states report less than 60 percent of their residents are defined as physically active (150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week, 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week, or some combination of the two). Kentucky is the only state in both categories. (Read more)

Asian carp threaten small Illinois town's economy

We've been following the progress of Asian carp toward the Great Lakes, most recently here. The carp are coming from the Mississippi River system, where maky streams have long been under assault from the invasive fish. Some in Illinois already fear Peoria has lost the battle, making Spring Valley the front line of the Asian carp war on the Illinois River. "In Spring Valley, an old coal-mining town 100 miles southwest of Chicago, signs proclaim the city the sauger fishing capital of the world," Joel Hood of The Chicago Tribune reports. "The Illinois River is so critical to the local economy and tourism that area residents say the town might cease to exist without it."

Spring Valley residents say since the Asian carp showed up a few years ago sauger fishing hasn't been the same. The Masters Walleye Circuit event each March is Spring Valley's biggest fishing tournament of the year and used to bring in 225 teams with another 30 on a waiting list, Hood reports. Last year only 100 teams registered and fewer than 40 have registered for 2010 so far. The event brought $1 million to $2 million in revenue to the community in its heyday, Hood writes.

"We need this spring tournament in our town," Spring Valley Mayor Cliff Banks told Hood. "We have one hotel that struggles here. At the gas stations and the grocery stores, we need these people in our town." Banks favors a proposal, suggested by Tim Leeds of Heartland Processing, to build a mobile fish processing plant for Asian carp in Spring Valley. Advocates say the plant could grind up as much as "4,000 pounds of carp an hour to produce marketable products from fertilizers and livestock feed to bulk protein and fish oils," Hood reports. Said Leeds: "If (the government) gets on board, it'll be a win-win for everybody. Except the carp." (Read more)

Mexicans bring black-tar heroin to rural America

"Farm boys" from an isolated Mexican county have brought cheap black-tar heroin to "vast stretches of America's heartland . . . cities and small towns across the United States, often creating demand for heroin where there was little or none," Sam Quinones reports for the Los Angeles Times.

"The dealers have been especially successful in parts of Appalachia and the Rust Belt with high rates of addiction to OxyContin, Percocet and other prescription painkillers. They market their heroin as a cheap, potent alternative to pills," Quinones writes. They "drove black tar's eastward expansion, moving into Columbus and from there to parts of rural Ohio and Pennsylvania," where powdered heroin, usually from Colombia, is relatively rare. "Their product began to appear in communities where users weren't prepared for its potency," and competitionamong the dealer groups cut prices to $12.50 a dose.

The groups "have no all-powerful leader and rarely use guns, according to narcotics investigators and imprisoned former dealers," Quinones relays. "Their acumen and energy are a major reason why Mexican heroin has become more pervasive in this country." His report will be in three parts; as a teaser for tomorrow's he wries that one of the places plagued is "a small town in West Virginia, 160 miles south of Columbus, where before the fall of 2007, few people had ever heard of black-tar heroin." (Read more)

USDA: Farm income to rise more than 12% in '10

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released its farm 2010 Farm Sector Income Forecast and it projects net farm income will increase this year. USDA projects income to be $63 billion for 2010, up $6.7 billion from 2009. The 2010 forecast is $1.4 billion below the 10-year average net farm income.

"Macroeconomic forces undergird our optimism in projecting a boost in 2010 farm income," USDA's Economic Research Service reports. "Fertilizer prices have fallen by about 50 percent in the past year. The dollar’s decline against other currencies should make agricultural exports of both crops and livestock/meat more competitive. Continued population growth, particularly in developing countries, will increase global demand if accompanied by rising incomes." Ethanol and biodeseil plants operating at greater potential in 2010 should help farm profits, ERS expects.

Of the various agricultural industries, ERS forecasts: "Economic conditions for livestock producers are expected to improve, while the economic conditions for crop producers are expected to deteriorate slightly or stabilize. Protein foods produced from animals and animal products are higher-cost items, and subject to budgeting considerations. Amid a recession, consumers can reduce consumption of meat, milk, and eggs, or buy lower priced products." (Read more from Keith Good of FarmPolicy.com)

Veterinarian shortage spreads, and rural areas bear burden; farmers sometimes play vet

A shortage of veterinarians, especially those who treat large animals, is spreading across the country but particularly in rural areas. "As a result, more people are depending on their rudimentary knowledge of veterinary procedures to get the jobs done," Michelle Rupe Eubanks of the Times Daily in Florence, Ala., reports. Large amounts of debt also push recent vet-school graduates to metropolitan areas, where pay is better.

Dr. Donna Anagarano, associate dean for academic affairs at the Auburn University School of Veterinary Medicine, told Eubanks the shortages in rural areas will worsen. An area of specialization is up to each graduate, but most of Auburn's 97 graduates last year plan to focus on small animals. "That's the largest [number of graduates] we've had, but there is still a shortage, and we do plan to grow the numbers," Anagarano told Eubanks. Nationally, 80 to 85 percent of vet-school applicants are women, who are less likely to want to work with large animals.

Rural areas bear more of the burden. "In a really small area, it's difficult to make a practice work," she told Eubanks. "Vets want to have outside interests, and many of them are married to other professionals. You want your spouse to be able to find a job, too. Small communities also often don't offer enough support to pay down that debt and make the practice feasible." (Read more)

CBS report raises public health concerns about routine antibiotic use in livestock

Last week we reported many in the agriculture industry were bracing for an unflattering report about antibiotic use in livestock from the CBS Evening News. Now after several delays the report has aired. Katie Couric reported that a 2009 University of Iowa study found a new strain of MRSA in 70 percent of hogs and 64 percent of the workers on several farms that used antibiotics in Iowa and western Illinois. On antibiotic-free farms, no MRSA was found.

"Health officials are concerned if workers who handle animals are getting sick - what about the rest of us?," Couric wrote. "Drug resistant infections have sky-rocketed over the past two decades, killing an estimated 70,000 Americans last year alone." Now scientists fear Americans may be acquiring drug-resistant MRSA from handling tainted meat from animals fed antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease, Couric reports. Liz Wagstrom, a veterinarian with the National Pork Board, told CBS most farmers use antibiotics appropriately. (Read more)

A bill in Congress would restrict use of antibiotics in animals raised for human consumption. In Part 2 of the report Couric visited Denmark to report on the country's attempts at producing antibiotic-free livestock. As of Friday the two online stories had more than 130 reader comments combined.

New mining policies don't stop annual Kentucky rally for 'stream saver' bill in legislature

The "I Love Mountains" rally in Frankfort, Ky., in support of a state "stream saver" bill was held for the fifth straight year yesterday, though some legislators say the bill is no longer needed after the state adopted new regulations governing strip mining and valley fills. Those at the rally maintained that further scrutiny is needed, James Bruggers reports for The Courier-Journal in Louisville. The rally was highlighted by an appearance from Grammy-winning musician and West Virginia native Kathy Mattea.

Democratic state Rep. Don Pasley, who sponsored an unsuccessful stream-saver bill more than once, withdrew his support in January after he decided the bill was no longer needed, Bruggers reports. K.A. Owens, chair of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, said the agreement among regulators, environmentalists and the industry would "greatly reduce the size and number of valley fills," but he told Bruggers that it is "up to us to see that it is enforced." Dave Moss, vice president for the Kentucky Coal Association, told Bruggers he didn't understand why any legislators would back a stream-saver bill now.

Rally participants again called for the end of mountaintop-removal mining, and a return to civil discourse about the issues. The solution "starts with realization, the remembrance, that we are not enemies – that we are brothers and sisters in conflict," Mattea told the crowd. Democratic Sen. Kathy Stein of Lexington, the sponsor of the current bill and a native of Wise County, Virginia, told the crowd, "You have got to make your voices heard. We need your help."(Read more)

Advocate says Obama has broken promise to stop subsidy payments to passive 'farmers'

President Obama has done some things to help rural America, but he has failed to follow through on a central promise of his campaign's rural agenda, writes Chuck Hassebrook for the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs. In Iowa in October 2007, Obama outlined his rural platform, including "pledging immediate action to close loopholes by limiting payments to active farmers who work the land and their landlords," Hassebrook writes. "Last month the Obama administration joined its predecessors in failing to act by releasing regulations that continue this gaping loophole," by allowing otherwise passive investors to count as active farmers if they participate in conference calls about the operation.

Hassebrook, who was apparently considered for a post in the Department of Agriculture, characterizes the decision as not just a forgotten campaign promise, but a dismissal of the "centerpiece of Obama’s rural policy and his central message to rural America about the kind of change he offered." He gives Obama credit for preventing "payment limitation rules from hurting smaller farmers who receive payment far below the limit," but says the president would be well served to return to his other rural commitments. "Our communities have real opportunities to advance," Hassebrook writes. "But one key to our future is a federal government that works with us to capitalize on those opportunities, rather than against us by subsidizing agricultural concentration." (Read more)

Coal industry exaggerations unnecessarily pit coalfield residents against each other, writer says

Increased environmental regulation and agreed-to changes in strip mining will help taxpayers in the long run, but coal-company scare tactics are hurting Kentucky's chances for a more energy independent future, a Kentucky environmentalist writes in an op-ed for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "We need approaches that shed light — not heat — on our problems and solutions," Kentuckians for the Commonwealth member and Southeast Community and Technical College professor Roy Silver writes. "Unfortunately, all too frequently many coal executives seem more prone to stoking fear."

"Coal executives grossly exaggerate the immediate threat to our region from legislation to reverse global warming," Silver writes. "The impact of proposed legislation will not be felt here for decades. We have a wonderful opportunity to diversify our local economy, reinvest some of the wealth extracted from our mountains and convert existing factories to making parts for windmills, solar panels, etc." Silver cites recent data showing significant declines in coal demand even as stockpiles grow and the loss of coal mining jobs as mines become more mechanized as justification for his claim. He argues better enforcement of water quality standards will save taxpayers money by reducing the cost of cleaning drinking water.

When the chair of Coal Operators & Associates in Pikeville recently referred to those with legitimate concerns about coal mining as "environmental jihadists," he was just the latest industry executive to use hyperbole to scare off detractors, Silver writes. "Pitting neighbor against neighbor is not healthy," he concludes. "We should follow a path that appeals to our better nature." (Read more)

Ky. county trying to set example for sustainable development in rural America

A small, rural county in Central Kentucky is hoping to strengthen its reputation as the greenest, most sustainable county in the state and set an example for other rural areas. The government of Washington County (Wikipedia map) cleaned up 27 illegal dumps in 2001, which led the state to declare it the state's first Certified Clean County, Carol Spence of the University of Kentucky reports. Now the county has a master plan that focuses on farmland preservation but still encourages growth.

In the county seat of Springfield, "Residents take advantage of a free curbside-pickup recycling program; farmers participate in study groups about sustainability; children bring home free energy-efficient light bulbs from school; and leaders of a local non-profit organization are focusing their current efforts on local food and making homes more energy efficient," Spence reports. "They have worked on this a small part at a time. They've done little steps," Lori Garkovich, UK professor of community and leadership development, told Spence.

Achieving sustainablility in a rural county was eased by a shared vision of what could be and the ability to break up the big picture into smaller pieces, Spence reports. "We're doing our little bit," said Sister Claire McGowan, a Dominican nun and leader of the grassroots organization New Pioneers for a Sustainable Future. "And we're hoping that we can provide some light to other rural communities in Kentucky. Yes, it is hard work, but you can have fun while you're doing it, and it really will end up making a big difference, not just for us, but also for the future generations who will live in and love this place." (Read more)

Careful planning important to sort out competing goals in public-private broadband partnerships

Public-private partnerships for rural broadband development will be favored in the second round of stimulus broadband funding, but they may not be right for all communities, Craig Settles writes for the Daily Yonder. "Communities that are responding with plans for public-private technology partnerships should not take such efforts lightly or pursue them in haste," Settles writes. "This promising approach is also fraught with challenges great enough to knock you off track."

Understanding the forecasts for return on investment under both best and worst case scenarios is key to financial sustainability of the projects, Settles writes. He says the "business of broadband is as much about managing growth as curtailing losses." Michael Johnston, vice president of Internet technology and broadband at Jackson Energy Authority, a public utility in Tennessee, encountered some of the public-private challenges with a telephone company during the rocky start of what eventually became a 16,000-subscriber fiber-optic network in Jackson.

"Partnering with a telco does help because you have to be ready for the different world of telecom operations," Johnston told Settles. "You can have completely different goals that are at cross purposes. The town or county wants to deliver services in places where it’s currently not offered. The partner needs to make money." Settles advocates that community leaders and private investors spend a lot of early time in "frank conversation so that both parties thoroughly understand how the other’s business works." These discussions can identify trouble spots as well as potential irreconcilable differences, and can help "construct and evaluate a business model with clear knowledge of how it affects all partners," Settles writes. (Read more)

Backyard Bird Count this weekend can be a snapshot of environmental trends

Bird watchers across the country can unite this weekend as the Great Backyard Bird Count commences its 13th annual event. The GBBC "aims to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent and in Hawaii" and is sponsored by the National Audubon Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and, for the first time, Bird Studies Canada, Kelly Burgess of the Los Angeles Times reports. Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes on at least one day of the event and report their sightings online. (Hummingbird photo by Pete Thomas)

"Even if you can identify a few species you can provide important information that enables scientists to learn more about how the environment is changing and how that affects our conservation priorities," Judy Braus, the Audubon Society's vice president for education, told Burgess. Last year's count included 94,165 checklists which identified 620 species and counted 11,558,638 individual birds, Burgess reports. (Read more)

The GBBC's Web site includes more information about the count including including printable regional tally sheets, frequently asked questions and information on entering the annual photo contest.