Philanthropist pushes to paint flaking bridge, raising lead-contamination issue for many localities

Does your community have an aging bridge, which not only looks bad but flakes toxic lead paint into the water and soil? It may be part of a national problem that has come to light in several communities around the country but has gained little national attention. That may be about to change, as one Kentucky philanthropist is putting his money and time into a cause that started with one old railroad bridge (above and below), at the northern entrance to his hometown of Bowling Green.

The CSX Transportation bridge over the inaptly named Barren River "had long been a local eyesore, as paint flaked into the river and onto its banks, but when local philanthropist David Garvin offered to restore the bridge in 2009 it became the symbol of a battle between locals and the railroad," Jon Hale writes for the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. "More than a year later, the bridge still hasn’t been painted, but testing of the banks revealed lead contamination – and questions about how many bridges across the country might be in similar condition." (Photos courtesy of David Garvin)

“What started out as painting a Rust Belt image bridge has, in fact, uncovered a major national lead pollution problem on thousands of bridges across the Eastern United States,” Garvin told the Bowling Green Daily News, which has followed the case closely. He told the paper and the Institute that his sampling found lead levels at least seven times the limit for soil in a residential or play area. CSX has taken its own samples, and tests “could prompt the state to consider if it needs to look at the condition of other CSX bridges in Kentucky,” Robyn L. Minor of the Daily News reported Aug. 20.

"Concern has been raised in several states about contamination from lead paint on old bridges," Hale writes, citing examples in Minnesota, North Carolina and Connecticut. Read his story here.

Study highlights importance of support systems for rural entrepreneurs

Local support groups are among the most important factors in fostering rural entrepreneurship, says a new report from the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs. The report's author Greg Wise, professor and community development specialist and director for the Center for Community and Economic Development at the University of Wisconsin–Extension, reports "the most important factors in developing a culture for entrepreneurship include: building and supporting business skills among entrepreneurs; developing vital resource centers; creating community awareness of and support for entrepreneurs; and building networks and collaboration," says a Newswise release.

The report, "Wisconsin Inventor & Entrepreneur Clubs: Investment in an Innovative Approach to Entrepreneurship," examines the roles reveals entrepreneurial clubs "offer a place for individuals to share new ideas, develop networks, obtain support for their efforts and offer a place to explore new ideas and move them to reality," the release says. The report says Wisconsin's entrepreneurial clubs have become an important place for entrepreneurs "to share ideas, obtain information and make connections with other entrepreneurs." (Read more)

You can obtain a copy of the report by contacting IIRA here.

Proposed Muslim center shakes up Tenn. town

UPDATE, Aug. 31: Following likely arson of construction equipment, and gunshots heard during a CNN crew's visit to the Islamic center, "Nearby mosques have hired security guards, installed surveillance cameras and requested the presence of federal agents at prayer services," Robbie Brown of The New York Times reports.

Like New York City, the much smaller town of Murfreesboro, Tenn., is grappling with acceptance of a proposed Muslim community center. The center is not to be built in a neighborhood with an emotional resonance like the New York location, but the local Muslim planners have been surprised by the backlash. "We haven't experienced this level of hostility before ever, so it's new to us," Saleh M. Sbenaty, an engineering professor who is overseeing the mosque's planned expansion told Annie Gowen of The Washington Post. The Islamic center became a political topic during the recent Republican gubernatorial primary; Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey asked if Islam was a "cult." Sbenaty has lived in Murfreesboro for 30 years and is confounded by the reaction.

While some residents voice a begrudging acceptance -- "We have to allow them freedom of religion," -- the opposition is vocal. A 44-year-old correctional officer named Kevin Fisher is using the local alternative newspaper as his means of being heard, reports Gowen. The Tennessean reported in June that Fisher told the Rutherford County Planning Commission, "Why have a mosque nine times the size of Nashville's in the middle of a farming, residential community?" About 1,000 people representing both sides of the issue were at a recent rally in the Murfreesboro town square. Said Fisher, it was "a beautiful example of our democracy at work." Not everyone felt that way. Lema Sbenaty, Saleh Sbenaty's 19-year-old daughter and a Middle Tennessee State University student, told Gowen, "You could see the hatred in their eyes." (Read more)

A proposed mosque in Northern Kentucky has also prompted opposition, with one flyer asking citizens to call Florence city officials and "stop the takeover of our country." Joshua Wice, ocmmunity and business development director, said the property is properly zoned. "It's a permitted use and this is really a property rights issue," he said. Mark Hansel of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that a 2000 federal law says, "No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation in a manner that imposes a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person, including a religious assembly or institution." (Read more)

TVA phasing out coal-powered plants in favor of nuclear-generated power

The Tennessee Valley Authority announced Friday it will begin shuttering part of its aging fleet of coal-fired power plants in favor of nuclear energy and energy conservation. TVA President Tom Kilgore outlined the 10-year plan, which would have TVA "idle at least 1,000 megawatts of coal generation, more than 7 percent of its biggest source of power, by 2015," Dave Flessner of the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. TVA directors also approved plans "to move ahead with reviving work on its unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in Alabama and restructuring electric rates next spring to encourage distributors...to limit consumption during peak demand periods," Flessner writes.

"We want to be a leader in cleaner energy and cleaner air, and that means we will have to be less reliant upon coal," Kilgore said. "That doesn’t mean that coal is going away, but we are looking at idling some of our coal units pretty soon." TVA got more than 60 percent of its electricity from coal-fired plants in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky in 2009. Until now, only one TVA-built plant has ever closed, the Watts Bar Steam Plant in Rhea County, Tenn., which closed in 1983.

"Some of the potential units on the chopping block could include the oldest units at the Widows Creek plant near Stevenson, Ala., the John Sevier plant near Rogersville, Tenn., and the Johnsville plant in West Tennessee," Flessner writes. Stephen Smith, executive director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said the decision was "absolutely the right path for TVA," but added "We believe there are a significant number of older, inefficient, dirty plants, even beyond the 1,000 megawatts that TVA is committing to retire today, that TVA should consider phasing out." (Read more)

Testimony at livestock industry antitrust hearings 'defend a way of life'

Farmers across the country are encouraged to attend a Friday meeting in Fort Collins, Colo., where U.S. Department of Agriculture and Justice Department officials will take testimony on antitrust violations in the livestock industry. "To thousands of people, however, this hearing isn’t about rules and regulations or interpretations of century-old laws," Bill Bishop writes for the Daily Yonder. "They are driving hundreds of miles to Fort Collins to defend a way of life." The meeting has been called the "most important day in the history of the U.S. cattle industry and in rural America," by Bill Bullard of Montana-based cattle raisers group R-CALF, who is trying to get 25,000 people to come to the meeting.

"Everybody in rural America needs to understand that this can be a beginning of a new direction," Bullard said earlier this month. "This is our opportunity and everyone who has a stake in rural America needs to be in Fort Collins on that day." Bishop agrees with Bullard that the meeting has large implications for rural America as it represents a government reinvestment in antitrust action after the Bush administration saw it as "ham-handed, intrusive and so, well, 20th century," Bishop writes.

The meeting offers a rare blending of politics with "thousands of lizard-booted ranchers and Deere-owning farmers, most from red states, driving hundreds of miles to support a big government solution proposed by a Democratic president," Bishop writes. The National Farmers Union has asked farmers to abandon the red/blue dynamic so common to our country's political system Friday by wearing green shirts to the meeting. Perhaps most importantly, the Fort Collins meeting may represent just the beginning of the antitrust push in agriculture. Wal-Mart now controls 25 percent of the nation's grocery business, which some say is forcing consolidation among meatpackers. USDA and the Justice Department are set to hold its final hearing in December, this one on competition in the retail grocery business. (Read more)

Hog farmers warn of risks from reducing antibiotics

The Obama administration wants farmers to use fewer antibiotics in their livestock operations, but that approach isn't without its hurdles. Randy, Mark and Tom Hilleman raise hogs for Iowa cooperative Eden Farms, which markets pork to high-end restaurants under the condition hogs have not been given antibiotics for growth promotion. The approach brings its own challenges, Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reports, namely "Some of the black Berkshire hogs grunting and rooting around the Hillemans' barns are likely to get sick and die before they're ready for market. That's because it's sometimes impractical to treat them, the brothers say."

Following concerns that overuse of antibiotics in livestock is contributing to drug-resistant diseases in humans, "the Food and Drug Administration this summer proposed to phase out the use of antibiotics as growth promotion but still allow drugs to be added to feed or water for purposes of preventing specific diseases," Brasher writes. Newly weaned pigs arrive at the Hillemans' farm when they are three weeks old and only receive"antibiotics while in the nursery and again for their first two weeks or so in the open-ended hoop barns where they spend most of their seven-month-long lives." Then the pigs only receive antibiotics if they are sick.

"If a sick pig doesn't get better on its own, it's likely to get a shot of an antibiotic, unless the animal is under the 100-day drug ban," Brasher writes. "If the hogs are given antibiotics then, they can only be sold as conventional hogs, and that means keeping a treated animal in a separate pen or marking it in some way to make sure it wasn't mixed with the hogs that will be marketed under the Eden Farms label." The Hillemans say  it's impractical for them to treat the pigs and handle them separately. For every 100 hogs they raise, two or three die of pneumonia or some other illness.
Some members of the Eden Farms co-operative have gone completely antibiotic free, but the Hillemans say not giving infant hogs antibiotics would be too risky. "Experts say that it's especially challenging to keep young pigs healthy without the use of antibiotics, since the animals are weaned at 3 weeks old or younger, much earlier than they would be in nature," Brasher writes. "That's so the sows can be impregnated and produce another litter as soon as possible." (Read more)

Suburban Chicago schools to build wind farm in rural Illinois and reap the financial rewards

Three suburban Chicago school districts are turning to a rural county 140 miles southwest of the city in hopes of balancing their budgets for years to come. "Empowered by recent legislation, Keeneyville School District 20, Carpentersville's Community Unit School District 300 and Prospect Heights School District 23 have joined together to build a 13-turbine wind farm that would sell energy to defray their own electrical bills," Robert Channick reports for The Chicago Tribune. The farm, to be built in Stark County, could bring in "$3 million in annual revenues for some 30 years — the expected life of the wind turbines."

The wind consortium is believed to be the nation's first scholastic wind farm, though several rural districts have on-site turbines to help supply electricity. "In 2007, Illinois adopted a net metering law requiring utilities to credit customers with renewable electricity generators for excess energy, further opening the door for other school districts, community colleges and municipalities to own and operate wind turbines to reduce costs," Channick writes, but urban districts said "installing the structures with their enormous blades proved impractical." A 2009 bill would have allowed urban districts to use offsite turbines to take advantage of the credit, but it was defeated after utilities objected to the plan.

The new legislation "in essence turns the schools into taxable energy wholesalers," Channick writes. The Stark County wind farm is expected to generate 65,000 megawatt hours annually, enough energy for about 5,000 homes, though the power purchase contract has yet to be negotiated. District 300, the third largest district in the state, which cut 114 teachers and $9 million from the budget, would get 80 percent of the revenue as it plans to invest the most money in the project. If the plan works it could catch on at other schools across the country. "It's totally unique, and the legislation that enables that project to work is also very unique," Kevin Borgia, executive director of the nonprofit Illinois Wind Energy Association, told Channick. "We really hope it does come together because it could be a big benefit for schools in Illinois and nationwide." (Read more)

Firm in egg recall supplies the other; FDA says rules killed in Bush era would have prevented it

The second company to recall millions of eggs gets hens and feed from the first company, which has been fined millions of dollars for health violations and is owned by a man who has been "involved in legal cases that have forced him to settle with the federal government for hiring illegal immigrants, for tolerating sexual harassment at his company, and has faced a litany of animal cruelty charges," Emily Friedman of ABC News reports.

Jack DeCoster's Wright County Egg Farms in Galt, Iowa, supplied Hillandale Farms in West Union and Alden, though Hillanale did not say that in its press release announcing the recall, The Des Moines Register reports. "DeCoster owns a hatchery in Minnesota and leases the Alden site to Hillandale, Philip Brasher writes. "Minnesota health officials said today that they have linked seven salmonella illnesses to Hillandale eggs and seven to eggs sold by Wright County Egg." (Read more)

Brasher reports today that Food and Drug Administration "officials said this week that the salmonella outbreak could have been averted had the agency imposed new safety rules before last month. The rules include biosafety measures, refrigeration standards and testing requirements for young hens as well as older birds. The rules were first proposed by the Clinton administration and then revived by the FDA last year, but the industry was given until July 9 to get into compliance. The DeCoster operation was previously following less-stringent industry guidelines, a spokeswoman said." (Read more)

Many rural groceries in Midwest are closing

We've previously reported on the decline of rural groceries, and one advocate says the decline has become a full-blown crisis. "These businesses are closing at an alarming rate," David Proctor, director of the Center for Engagement and Community Development at Kansas State University, writes for the Daily Yonder. "Almost daily another small-town, independently-owned store shuts its doors and closes up shop." In Iowa nearly 43 percent of groceries in towns smaller than 1,000 people have closed, and Kansas has lost nearly one in five rural groceries since 2006.

"Rural grocery stores are part of the economic engine that sustains rural communities," Proctor writes. "They are a significant source of local taxes, powering the creation and maintenance of civic services and amenities. They provide essential, stable jobs – butchers, cashiers, managers, and stockers – at a time when we are desperate for employment opportunities." Proctor explains that his research has shown many rural areas lacking full-scale groceries are "facing a crisis of access to healthy foods" such as fresh produce.

Proctor identified seven key challenges facing rural grocery owners: competition with big-box stores, operating costs, labor issues, governmental regulations, lack of community support, low sales volume and meeting suppliers' minimum purchase requirements. Among those challenges, competing with big box stores was most prevalent, with 80 percent of respondents identifying it as a challenge. "Big-box wholesalers have moved into the grocery business and now many offer large grocery sections as part of their stores," Proctor writes. "Rural store owners view these stores as competition that threatens their very survival." (Read more) (Yonder chart)

Tipsheet has help for covering oil pipeline spills

The million gallons of oil spilled into Michigan watersheds, including the Kalamazoo River, from a Enbridge Energy Partners pipeline last month, showed how dangerous oil pipelines spills can be, and such spills might be more common than you think. Environmental Protection Agency data shows "tens of thousands of miles of oil and gas pipelines crisscross the U.S., and they spilled more than 2 million gallons of oil in 2009 alone," the Society of Environmental Journalists reports. These pipelines tend to run through rural areas, making SEJ's tipsheet for covering pipeline threats of particular value to rural journalists.

"For the Enbridge spill in Michigan, there was extensive evidence of looming problems," SEJ reports, adding that finding evidence that there were problems before a spill is difficult, but key in coverage of such events. The Associated Press reported shortly after the spill that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration met with Enbridge officials in February regarding problems with corrosion monitoring and other issues in this pipeline. Since May the U.S. House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials has held four hearings about pipeline risks. Minutes from each of those hearings (May 20, June 29, July 15 and July 21) can provide valuable information for journalists.

Following the 2001 terrorist attacks, much of the information about pipeline locations on government websites was taken offline, leading many journalists to say that reporting on pipelines was nearly impossible, but there are several resources that can be useful in tracking down pipeline information, SEJ reports: County-level maps, which may not include all pipelines and are valid as of 2007, are available from PHMSA. Searching EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online database can help journalists "get a feel for where pipelines are located and whether they have had any past officially-acknowledged problems," SEJ says. The Pipeline Risk Management Information System contains data where "various companies acknowledge certain pipelines or related facilities known to have problems, and outline their proposed plans of action to remedy the problems." (Read more)

Rural folk less likely to think of pets as children; we thought we knew that, but research confirms

Rural and urban perspectives often differ. One such area is pets, and research confirms what some of us have thought for a long time, that "People who regard pets as children tend to have a city background, for example, while those in rural areas have a more practical attitude," Robert Preidt of HealthDay reports for USA Today. The research at Indiana University South Bend was presented Sunday in Atlanta at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting.

"To think of pets as just another animal is not uncommon in rural areas, which makes sense given the utilitarian relationships people in rural areas are more likely to have with a range of different animals — from farm to wild animals," David Blouin, lead author and IUSB assistant professor of sociology, said in an ASA news release. Regardless of location, though, pet owners are less likely to think of their animals as children after they have actually children of their own, the study found. (Read more)

Lessons from past cause skepticism among farmers about recent wheat price increases

On the surface Russia's ban on grain exports in the face of a devastating drought may seem like good news for U.S. farmers as wheat prices skyrocket, but lessons from the recession have left some wary. "As planting time approaches next month, they are balancing the possibility of greater income against the failed promises of the past, when bonanzas turned bust, sometimes at terrible cost," Kirk Johnson of The New York Times reports. "Even many who plan to plant more wheat are begrudging and hesitant — fearful that global dynamics could shift again before next year’s harvest." Wheat prices heat a two-year high recently, up 57 percent from less than three months ago.

"The market says plant more," Eugene Schroder, who farms about 4,000 acres in southeast Colorado, told Johnson. Still Schroder said he "feared that wheat prices were being driven by speculators, as was the case a few years ago, just before the recession, when the price soared and then crashed," Johnson writes. Schroder explained, "What is this wheat market? I don’t have a clue, and I’m a professional wheat farmer. There’s a complete lack of transparency." If good weather holds up over the next few weeks, Schroder plans to quadruple the number of acres for wheat.

Even before the Russian ban, U.S. wheat planting expectations were higher than last year. Now "a quirk of crop insurance, which locks in grain prices for policies based on a window that was set in the last few weeks — after Russia announced the ban on grain exports on Aug. 5 — could accelerate the trend, farm experts said, or prompt farmers in other parts of the country to give wheat another look," Johnson writes. Even with those factors, a wheat boom may not be in the offing. Last year fewer acres of wheat were planted nationally than any year since 1971.

Lessons from the past also factor in farmers' skepticism. "In 1972 and 1973, in the spirit of thawed tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, the United States sold hundreds of millions of bushels of wheat to the Soviets after another disastrous crop failure there," Johnson writes. "And the response could well be same, too — overreaction and overproduction, leading to a glut and a crash in prices." (Read more)

'Listening tour' gathering information for effort to reconnect Americans with the great outdoors

In April President Obama established the America's Great Outdoors Initiative "to develop a conservation agenda worthy of the 21st Century and to reconnect Americans with our great outdoors." Now the Obama administration has launched a listening tour in which cabinet officials will gather feedback across the country about strategies to reconnect Americans with the outdoors. The tour has already stopped in 13 cities, with five more scheduled and more stops expected. You can find information about the five upcoming tour stops below or visit the initiative's website here.

• Aug. 20 -- St. Louis, Mo. -- More Information
• Aug. 26 -- Orlando, Fla. -- More Information
• Aug. 27 -- Nashville, Tenn. -- More Information
• Aug. 31 -- Chicago, Ill. -- More Information
• Sept. 2 -- Bangor, Maine -- More Information

Wally Lage, widely known rural newspaper executive from Missouri, drowns in Maine

Wally Lage, one of America's most prominent rural newspaper executives, drowned last night in Maine, where he was attending an annual gathering of newspaper executives. Lage, 66, was vice president and chief operating officer of Rust Communications of Cape Girardeau, Mo., a family-owned company that publishes The Southeast Missourian and several other newspapers. He "drowned after stepping off a private boat" in Harpswell, reports Steve Mistler of The Forecaster, a local weekly: "The Sheriff's Department said several witnesses saw Lage slip from the wharf. One person jumped into the water to find him, but Lage never resurfaced. The Sheriff's Department said Lage may have become caught beneath a float, where his body was discovered about 30 minutes later. The incident occurred around 9:30 p.m., after sunset and in limited moonlight." (Read more)

"Lage began his newspaper career in 1969 with Winsor Newspapers in Canton, Ill.," The Southeast Missourian's Bob Miller reports. "By age 25, he was publisher of the Boonville Daily News and publisher of free publications in Jefferson City, Mo., and Columbia, Mo." He was president of newspaper operations for Paxton Media Group LLC, based in Paducah, Ky., and general manager of The Paducah Sun, a 25,000-circulation daily. The Paxton family owns the Paducah television station, which is in the same market as Cape Girardeau. Lage joined Rust, another family-owned company, in 1993. As he did in Paducah, he oversaw acquisitions and startups of many daily and weekly papers, totaling about 50 for Rust. He was inducted into the Missouri Press Association Hall of Fame in 2008. (Southeast Missourian photo)

"Wally was a remarkable newspaperman and a great friend," said Jon Rust, co-president of the company. "He will be greatly missed. We've been hearing from people from Seattle to Maine about his death. He touched the lives of many people." Lage is survived by his wife Dori, four children and seven grandchildren. (Read more) Funeral arrangements are incomplete.

Former USDA official Sherrod says NAACP important for rural African Americans

UPDATE, Aug. 21: Sherrod will meet with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Tuesday to discuss a job offer, CNN reports.

Shirley Sherrod, the former Department of Agriculture Rural Development director in Georgia who delivered a message to an NAACP banquet and ended up the subject of a heavily edited video by blogger Andrew Breitbart, writes for the NAACP blog about her experience and her conversation with NAACP President Benjamin Jealous: "As he has done in public, Ben movingly apologized for the fact that the NAACP was initially hoodwinked by Breitbart and Fox into supporting my removal. I told him what I want to tell you. That's behind us, and the last thing I want to see happen is for my situation to weaken support for the NAACP. Too many people confronted by racism and poverty count on the NAACP to be there for them, especially those in rural areas who often have nowhere else to turn."

While a teenager, Sherrod's father was murdered in Baker County, Georgia (pop. 3,637). The crime was witnessed by three people, but a grand jury did not indict the white suspect. Sherrod vowed to stay in Georgia and fight racism. Said Sherrod: "I didn't yield when, just months after my father was killed, they came in the middle of the night to burn a cross in front of our house with my mother, four sisters, and the baby brother my father never got to see still inside. And I'm surely not going to yield because some Tea Party agitator sat at his computer and turned everything I said upside down and inside out. "

Sherrod said she learned much from her parents. Among the most important lessons she learned from her mother: "We mustn't try to live with hate in our hearts." (Read more)

AP, foundation offer campaign finance information

The Associated Press and the Sunlight Foundation, which was created to improve government transparency, are sponsoring a series of webinars to help reporters deal with the new rules governing campaign finance in this year's elections. The last one will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 18. To register, click here.

At the last webinar, on Monday, Bill Allison of Sunlight said they expect lots of spending by outside interests because of the recent Supreme Court decision allowing corporations and unions to spend directly on advertising that advocates the election or defeat of a candidate, as long as the spending is independent of the candidate. Allison said most corporations are likely to spend through other entities to avoid damaging their brands with voters. (UPDATE, Aug. 18: Media companies are giving. Hubbard Broadcasting of St. Paul gave $100,000 to Minnestota Forward, a new independent-expenditure group "that is supporting several Republican and Democratic candidates," Joe Strupp reports for Media Matters for America, and News Corp., the parent of Fox News, just gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association. Party.)

Some interest groups are already running ads, and the National Republican Congressional Committee has released a list of districts in which it will advertise. Many are represented by rural Democrats. The outside spending will also occur in state legislative races where control of chambers is at stake, as Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. And don't forget Internet ads, which the Natural Resources Defense Council is coupling with radio in an effort to get six moderate senators to support a bill on climate change. UPDATE, Aug. 20: FactCheck.org finds fault with outside groups' ads on both sides in the California governor's race.

Advertising purchases of more than $10,000 that name a federal candidate, and the names of contributors of $1,000 or more toward the effort, must be reported to the Federal Election Commission within 24 hours. Independent expenditures, which advocate election or defeat, must be reported to the FEC within 48 hours (or 24 hours close to the election). See http://www.fec.gov/. Another source of information about all campaigns buying broadcast ads is the political public-inspection file at stations and cable-TV companies. Developing relationships with people at these outlets may enable you to get the information over the telephone without having to go to the station.

Other topics covered in the webinar include: changes wrought by the Supreme Court decision; where to find campaign-finance data, including some sites we had not heard of; how money is raised, and what that says about a campaign; why spending is also important to track; and the relationship of lobbying to campaigns. As Sharon Theimer of AP said, this is not just a document-driven beat, but a source-driven beat. This writer has decades of experience covering political campaigns and is available to help rural journalists; just e-mail al.cross@uky.edu.

Sons' play makes rural editor think of heroes and write an editorial praising them

In rural and community journalism, sometimes the best editorials are those that make a point by using the personal experience of the writer, who is usually known to most of the community. A good example of that was last week's editorial (presented as a column, as rural editors often do) by Ryan Craig of the Todd County Standard, for several years judged Kentucky's best small newspaper.

When his sons dressed up as superheroes, it made him think of two other local children whom he called heroes in a headline because they made a video that got "a governing body to spend $35,000 to do something that had never bene done before in Todd County . . . make the playground at North Todd Elementary handicap-accessible," he wrote in his piece. Read it here (PDF)

Eastern Ky. residents sue coal company after widespread July flooding

The severity of flooding in Pike County, Ky., last month was  increased by surface mining operations, alleges a lawsuit from 126 Harless Creek residents. "The flooding occurred July 17 on Harless Creek, downstream from where Cambrian Coal Corp. and AEP Kentucky Coal Inc. had mining operations, according to the lawsuit," Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. "Violations by the companies played a substantial role in 'massive amounts of water' running off the mine sites and turning Harless Creek into a 'raging river' that washed away homes and vehicles in the narrow hollow, the lawsuit says." (H-L photo of Pike County flood)

"The lawsuit comes against the backdrop of an argument by some Eastern Kentucky residents that four decades of mining activity, including clearing areas of native forests and compacting the ground during reclamation, have worsened flash flooding," Estep writes. Coal companies counter no scientific link exists between surface mining and flash flooding, and they work to limit effects of mine sites by reclaiming them responsibly. Tom FitzGerald, executive director of the Kentucky Resources Council, disagreed with those claims, saying "studies have long linked surface-mining activities to a higher incidence of flash flooding," Estep writes.

FitzGerald explained, "Congress recognized the potential for higher peak runoff from mined areas and included in the 1977 surface-mining law such protections as controls on runoff and a requirement to begin replanting part of a site as mining continues nearby," Estep writes, but he notes subsequent administrations have weakened those protections. Bill Bissett, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, told Estep, "Our hearts go out to the people affected by the recent hard rains and flooding," some of whom work in the coal industry, but said without scientific proof surface mining caused the flood the Harless Creek residents would be better served looking elsewhere for the cause. (Read more)

Programs demonstrate oral health care strategies beyond traditional dentistry

Much focus has been placed on poor oral health, particularly among low income children, since the move for health care reform began, and now some areas are increasingly looking to resources outside of dentist offices to address the problem. The Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency has added dental clinics to its patient care regimen, and in "Storm Lake, Iowa, school and home health nurses are giving oral exams and fluoride treatments to children as part of a broader-based program known as Early Smiles," Candi Helseth reports for the Rural Monitor Newsletter.

A 2008 issue brief from the Center for Studying Health System Change listed "low rates of dental insurance coverage, limited dental benefits available through public insurance programs and a lack of dentists willing to serve low-income patients" as key barriers to dental services. MDFMR faculty member Dr. William Alto began the group's oral health program in 2003 after becoming frustrated by the lack of oral care he saw among his regular patients. "In the last six years, we’ve seen more than 2,300 patients for oral health needs," Alto told Helseth. "Our residents have found cancers, lesions and other oral health problems that need medical care. We encourage our residents to do an oral exam with every medical exam."

While the Iowa Early Smiles program is primarily aimed at children, participants report a positive effect no parents and other family members who also look to improve their oral health care. "We’ve had such positive responses from the community and the increased awareness has really helped our outreach," Early Smiles project director Veronica McFadden told Helseth. "We worked with the university (Buena Vista University at Storm Lake) to create oral health puppet plays that university students wrote. They’re educational and funny, and the humor in them appeals to the adults too. The community likes them so much that I’ve gotten donations to expand the plays to other topics. We’ve even been asked to bring them to places like the Latino Festival. We’ll go wherever we can get our message out." (Read more)

Research paper offers suggestions for turning around Appalachian economy

The economic problems of Central Appalachia reflect the problems of other rural communities with economies based on extracting natural resources across the world. To address those issues, the region must undergo a fundamental change to focus on sustainable economy activities, writes one Appalachian researcher. "A reliance on exporting a few things to generate income to import many things has created enormous problems around the globe, particularly in rural, resource-dependent regions like central Appalachia," Anthony Flaccavento, founder of Appalachian Sustainable Development, writes for the journal Solutions. In his paper Flaccavento examines examples of the shift toward a sustainable economy in Appalachia before offering suggestions for his economic model for the region. (Solutions photo of mountaintop removal mine by Paul Corbit Brown)

The emerging sustainable economy enterprises in the region "vary in scale and stage of development, but, in general, they are more ecologically sustainable because of the way they are produced and the greatly reduced transport distances to market," Flaccavento writes. "They use asset-based strategies, building and adding value to the ecological, cultural, and human strengths of the region. They cultivate self-reliance for producers and the broader community. And they build cooperative networks that help overcome isolation, estrangement, and problems of scale." He points to three areas (food and farming, forestry and green building) as fields where sustainable economic endeavors are catching on in Appalachia.

"By 2009, there were more than 20 local healthy-food initiatives in the region, encompassing a range of crops, products, and business models," Flaccavento writes. For instance, the Appalachian Community Economic Network’s commercial kitchen initiative, launched in 1994, has helped launch or expand 250 food businesses that have generated over $6.5 million in annual sales. Flaccavento points to the Forest Opportunities Initiative, launched in 2008 by the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, as an example of sustainable economic development in the forestry industry. You can read previous Rural Blog coverage of that program here. Green building initiatives, which arose in the region out of affordable housing efforts, emphasize "energy conservation and efficiency, along with the use of regional, sustainably produced wood and other materials and renewable energy sources such as geothermal, solar, and wind," Flaccavento writes.

As central Appalachian economies work through a time of transition, Flaccavento offers six principles of sustainable economies they should follow. Sustainable economies are locally rooted, fit within the ecosystem, are more self reliant and resilient, are more just, have infrastructure that increases the value and marketability of their products and are engaging and empowering, Flaccavento writes. He suggests economic strategies should be examined through the lens of two questions: To what degree does our strategy, policy, technology, or enterprise sustain or restore the ecosystem’s capacity to sequester carbon? and How effectively do our strategies and policies accelerate the development of diverse, resilient, wealth-building local economies?.

Achieving these goals will "require greater investment in the emerging sustainable economy that supports this new way of thinking about prosperity and economic health," Flaccavento writes. "Such investment will need to be flexible and patient, what Tom Miller of MACED has called 'nurture capital,' and it will need to come from both within and outside the region, from foundations and investors. The transformation of regions like central Appalachia, which have historically fueled growth and affluence in other places, will be essential to achieving this new prosperity." (Read more)