Commercial plant making cellulosic ethanol; two more plants expected to open in Iowa this year

Production of commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol, which is considered more environmentally friendly than conventional ethanol, is up and running in northwest Iowa, Donnelle Eller reports for The Des Moines Register. Galva-based Quad County Corn Processors last week produced a limited amount but was expected to be at full speed this week and "plans to quickly scale-up so that it's producing about 2 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year." (Register photo by Charlie Litchfield: Bales of cellulosic field refuse outside a plant last winter)

Agri-Pulse, a Washington newsletter, reports that in 2007 a bipartisan Congress "overwhelmingly adopted an updated Renewable Fuel Standard that calls for 16 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol to make up the largest of a 36-billion-gallon biofuel target by 2022. Underscoring that optimism was the decision by Congress to cap corn ethanol's annual contribution at 15 billion gallons in 2015 and beyond." (Agri-Pulse is subscription only, but a free trial is available by clicking here.)

"The dramatic reduction of carbon emissions offered by fuel from corn stalks or agriculture residues when compared to gasoline and the availability as an almost limitless source of feedstock led Congress to establish an upward progression of cellulosic ethanol targets under RFS," Agri-Pulse writes. But the Environmental Protection Agency kept revising its cellulosic ethanol targets, lowering numbers from an original target of 1.75 billion in 2014 to only 17 million gallons. Blenders have still called the target number excessive, and EPA data shows that as of early June, less than 30,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol has been produced this year.

But production could increase at a rapid rate, with two more facilities expected to be up and running in Iowa by the end of the year, Eller writes. DuPont Danisco is building a $225 million cellulosic ethanol plant near the town of Nevada, Iowa, that "plans to make 30 million gallons of ethanol annually from corncobs, husks and stalks, known as stover." Poet-DSM is building a $250 million cellulosic plant in the northwest Iowa town of Emmetsburg and plans to produce 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually. (Read more)

Rural Kansas hospital says it has good strategy for recruiting doctors; Michigan ups incentives

While many rural areas have struggled with doctor shortages, medical professionals in Lakin, Kan., say they have uncovered the key to recruitment success, Mike Shields reports for the Kansas Health Institute. "In Kearny County, on the High Plains near the Kansas-Colorado boundary where there are only about five residents per square mile, one small hospital has adopted a distinctive approach to recruitment that in a relatively short time has produced a staff that includes five doctors, five physician assistants and a growing volume of patients."

The key, Kearny County Hospital CEO Benjamin Anderson told Shields, is to direct searches at four specific types of doctors: someone born and raised in the area looking to return home; foreign doctors who gained U.S. resident status by agreeing to work (usually temporarily) in an under-served area; a "challenged doctor" with addictions or other problems who struggles with accountability issues; and a missionary-type person, someone "driven by by mission or purpose” to treat those in need.

Anderson told Shields that doctors they recruit “aren’t that interested in country clubs, not that interested in ego and money and prestige and elite social clubs. What they are there for is to serve. That doesn’t mean our community is Third World, and it doesn’t mean it is inferior. There is need everywhere.” The hospital also offers four-day work weeks, limited emergency-room calls and eight weeks off each year to pursue other interests or missionary work. (Read more)

While that method has worked in Kansas, Michigan is trying to draw new doctors the old fashioned way—through incentives. Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill this week that hopes to bring more doctors to under-served areas by increasing "the maximum annual repayment benefit for a doctor from $25,000 to $40,000, which "creates a lifetime cap of $200,000," reports the Midland Daily News. It also allows the state Department of Community Health "to give preference to physicians studying general practice, family practice, obstetrics, pediatrics or internal medicine." (Read more)

1/3 of rural roads in some states in poor condition; many rural bridges deficient; death rates high

About one-third of rural roads in Connecticut, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Hawaii, Michigan and Kansas are rated as being in poor condition, according to a report released Thursday by The Road Information Program, funded by lobbies interested in highways and their safety. TRIP says federal transportation data from 2012 rated 15 percent of the nation's major rural roads as being in poor condition and another 40 percent as mediocre or fair. Data from 2013 shows that "12 percent of the nation’s rural bridges were rated as structurally deficient, and 10 percent were functionally obsolete."

Connecticut's rural roads are in the worst shape, with 35 percent rated as being in poor condition, the report says. Next are Rhode Island and West Virginia, at 33 percent; Hawaii and Michigan, 32 percent; Kansas, 30 percent; Oklahoma, 29 percent; Maine, 28 percent; Mississippi, 25 percent; Arkansas and Missouri, 23 percent; Washington, 22 percent; New Mexico, Alabama and Vermont, 21 percent; Alaska, 20 percent; New Hampshire and Virginia, 18 percent; and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, 17 percent.

One-fourth of all rural bridges in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island were rated as deficient. Iowa was next, at 22 percent, followed by South Dakota, 21 percent; Oklahoma, 20 percent; Hawaii and Nebraska, 19 percent; North Dakota, 17 percent; Maine and Louisiana, 16 percent; Missouri and New Hampshire, 15 percent; Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Wyoming, New York and Michigan, 14 percent; and West Virginia and California, 13 percent.

The report found that in 2012 non-interstate rural roads "had a traffic fatality rate of 2.21 deaths for every 100 million vehicle miles of travel, compared to a fatality rate on all other roads of 0.78 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles of travel." The highest fatality rate was in South Carolina, which had 3.99 deaths per every 100 million vehicle miles of travel, compared to 0.68 on all other roads.

South Carolina was followed by Florida, 3.35 fatalities per every 100 million miles, compared to 0.95 on other roads; West Virginia, 2.8 and 0.99; Texas, 2.76/1.03; Arkansas, 2.71/0.87; Tennessee, 2.68/0.95; Arizona, 2.66/1.11; Kentucky, 2.64/0.78; California, 2.61/0.63; Pennsylvania, 2.6/0.91; Oklahoma, 2.52/0.92; Hawaii, 2.48/.089; North Carolina, 2.44/0.64; Montana, 2.4/0.95; North Dakota, 2.33/0.77; Kansas, 2.26/0.74; South Dakota, 2.21/0.74; Ohio, 2.15/0.63; New York, 2.13/0.59; and Indiana, 2.09/0.56.

"TRIP is sponsored by insurance companies, equipment manufacturers, distributors and suppliers, businesses involved in highway and transit engineering and construction, labor unions, and organizations concerned with an efficient and safe surface transportation network that promotes economic development and quality of life," its website says.

Immigrants in rural Minnesota share culture and heritage through folk art

Rural immigrants in some corners of Minnesota have been able to share their culture and heritage with locals, and each other, "with the help of arts groups, local festivals and public money that supports cultural pursuits," Gregg Aamot reports for MinnPost. (Aamot photo: The "Tapestry of Friendship")

"Lisa Rathje, a folklorist and teacher at Goucher College in Baltimore, traveled throughout Minnesota as a consultant for the Minnesota State Arts Board, looking, in particular, for examples of folk art," Aamot writes. "She said she was struck by the interesting work being done by immigrants and refugees—much of it non-commercially—and the interesting combination of cultures that can be expressed in various works." Rathje told him, “Newer immigrants and refugees are aware of that tension—aware of those shared lives and that gets revealed in their work."

One place where that is clearly evident is in Pelican Rapids, "an Otter Tail County town of 2,500 people where Somalis, Eastern Europeans, Latin Americans and others were first drawn by work at West Central Turkeys and other agricultural industries," Aamot writes. "Many now express their talent and culture through art."

"This intersection of old and new is captured in a community quilt, called the 'Tapestry of Friendship,' on display at the local library," Aamot writes. "The 25 patches on the quilt were made by local women with roots in older immigrant communities—such as Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch and Irish—and newer ones, including Somali, Bosnian and Mexican. Native American culture is also represented in the quilt. In an accompanying pamphlet, each woman explains the origins and significance of each patch in a short essay." (Read more)

Rural schools increasing in population; Hispanic students up 32.5 percent from 2008 to 2012

Rural student populations are on the rise. More than 10.5 million students were enrolled in rural schools in 2012, an increase of 9.1 percent from 2008, when the number was about 9.6 million students, Daniel Showalter reports for the Daily Yonder. During that same time enrollment decreased in suburban areas by 7.8 percent and by 1.4 percent in urban areas. (The interactive Yonder map shows changes in rural student populations. To see results by county click here) 

The number of non-white students increased significantly in rural areas from 2008 to 2012, rising by 23.9 percent, while the number of rural white students increased by 4.7 percent, Showalter writes. Hispanic enrollment increased by 32.5 percent, Asian by 22.7 percent and African American by 1.5 percent. All data was taken from the National Center for Education Statistics, which labels rural differently from how the Yonder labels it. (Read more)

Journalist's book details Appalachian furniture maker's fight to keep jobs from being outsourced

Beth Macy

Inspired by a story she wrote in 2012 for The Roanoke Times, journalist Beth Macy has taken the idea one step further and turned it into a book, Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - and Helped Save an American Town. In April Columbia University gave Macy a $30,000 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, which is "given annually to aid in the completion of a significant work of nonfiction on a topic of American political or social concern," Carole Tarrant reports for the Times. Macy left the paper in May to work on a second book.

The book, set to be published Tuesday, July 15, centers on John Bassett, who lives and works in Henry County, Virginia, an area where 19,000 jobs have been outsourced, Ralph Berrier reports for the Times. Macy's story chronicles "how the brash, cocky, opinionated Bassett had been cast aside by his own family and was left with one small factory in Galax, Va., the Vaughan-Bassett company. From that humble outpost, he launched the largest anti-dumping petition against Chinese manufacturers—and he won. He pumped the money back into his company and added jobs."

Macy told Berrier, "The story has everything. He’s a rich Bassett, he’s a fighter who took on China and he won in the International Court of Trade and he’s from Galax. It’s a family-feud story, and it’s the story of every factory that closed in America, from textiles to whatever. I said, 'I have to go meet him.'" (Read more)
  
New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin says Factory Man "is loaded with colorful minutiae . . . but it also seriously traces an important arc of regional decline, as the conditions that once made Appalachia ideal furniture country begin to fail." (Read more)

Kirkus Reviews says: "The author’s brightly written, richly detailed narrative not only illuminates globalization and the issue of offshoring, but succeeds brilliantly in conveying the human costs borne by low-income people displaced from a way of life—i.e., factory jobs that their Appalachian families had worked for generations." (Read more)

UPDATE, July 15: Macy was interviewed on "Fresh Air." To hear it, click here.

Dairy Farmers of America agrees to settle lawsuit and pay farmers in Northeast $50 million

While the Dairy Farmers of America cooperative is not admitting any wrongdoing, it has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Vermont and New York farmers for $50 million. The farmers filed the suit in 2009, claiming they lost $341 million when DFA, Deans Foods and HP Hood "worked together to suppress prices paid to farmers and deny them access to milk processors," reports Agri-Pulse, a Washington newsletter. The complaint against Hood was dismissed in 2010, and Dean agreed in 2011 to pay $30 million.

Monica Massey, vice-president of DFA's Kansas City office, told Agri-Pulse: "While we believe the allegations against us are without merit and the activities of the DFA, Dairy Marketing Service and other affiliated milk marketing cooperatives in the Northeast benefited cooperative members and independent producers alike, the cost to continue to defend ourselves has become too great."

The number of farmers who will receive money is uncertain. DFA said in 2011 that as many as 13,000 farmers would split proceeds, but lawyers said at the time that the number was less than half that figure, Agri-Pulse writes. "The Boston milk market order website shows nearly 6,500 farmers in New England and New York state; the total grows to about 11,900 if Pennsylvania and Maryland are included." Agri-Pulse is subscription only, but a free trial is available by clicking here.

Farm writer is getting his kicks on old Route 66, seeing rural America's hidden treasures

Chris Clayton of DTN/The Progressive Farmer is getting a firsthand look at rural America by traveling old U.S. Route 66, "and taking a look at the history, the towns and different kinds of agriculture and farming businesses along the route," he writes. (Clayton photo: Funks Grove, Ill.)

During his travels Clayton has met many interesting people and seen many interesting sights. One such is in Madison County, Illinois, where the agricultural history is rooted in horseradish, Clayton writes. "You might not discover that when passing the towns of Collinsville or Edwardsville on the interstate. If you do veer off the four-lane, you are more likely to learn about catsup than horseradish. The 170-foot-tall Brooks Rich & Tangy Catsup bottle/water tower is considered the world's tallest. It's on State Route 159 in Collinsville, a short jaunt off the Route 66 byway." (Read more)

There's also Illinois resident Tim Seifert, a modern farmer living in a world bent on nostalgia. While Seifert uses technology to help on his farm outside Auburn, Ill., the big attraction in his neck of the woods is "a 1.4-mile stretch of brick road north of town, created in 1932, that was an early section of Route 66," Clayton writes. Seifert told him, "I don't know what the affiliation is, but they will stop and put a beanie baby or something on the road. They will get down on their knees and take photos of the bricks."

"It needs to be preserved, but on the other hand, it's not functional," Seifert said. "We've got 80,000-pound trucks running up and down it, and the bridge is so narrow you can't get across it with equipment. So we have got nostalgia, that's fine, but it kind of hinders our progress from time to time." (Read more)

'Rolling coal' drivers fighting 'War on Coal' by purposely releasing more exhaust into the air

How far will some people go to protest government regulations? A trend that has quietly gained steam, to a large extent in rural areas, is called rolling coal, "in which truck drivers spend thousands of dollars altering their rides to produce ever greater amounts of smoke" as a form of political protest, Ryan Grenoble writes for theHuffington Post. (YouTube image)

"Modifications include a variety of components that increase the amount of fuel entering the truck's engine. When there's so much fuel that it fails to combust properly, 'it leaves the engine as soot,' according to an article on DieselHub.com, a website dedicated to diesel truck owners," Grenoble writes. "That soot, which coal rollers call "Prius repellent" in online videos and forums and on decals on their trucks, can then be channeled up through 'smoke stacks,' where it exits onto bystanders (or a Prius following too closely) in a thick, pollutant-heavy black cloud."

One seller of smoke stack kits told the Post, “I run into a lot of people that really don’t like Obama at all. If he’s into the environment, if he’s into this or that, we’re not. I hear a lot of that. To get a single stack on my truck—that’s my way of giving them the finger. You want clean air and a tiny carbon footprint? Well, screw you.” (Read more)

Some in South wary of plans to trim voting precincts

When a Republican member of the elections board in Cleveland County, North Carolina, explained the plan to consolidate five voting precincts into two, it sounded logical and helpful. He spoke of wheelchair access and $10,000 in savings every election. However, some African Americans are skeptical about the true reasons behind the change, Richard Fausset writes for The New York Times. (NYT graphic)

Those precincts have a lot of black voters who often vote Democratic. "We know that this is part of a bigger trend—a movement to suppress people's right to vote," said Rev. Dante Murphy, president of the Cleveland County branch of the NAACP.

The same issue has arisen in a number of communities, especially those in the South, "where changes to election laws no longer require advance approval from the federal government after a year-old Supreme Court ruling voided a key section of the Voting Rights Act," Fausset reports.

Voting-rights advocates say such changes and some new state laws that limit ballot access and require voters to show picture IDs add up to a deliberate effort to reduce voting by minorities, Fausset reports, while supporters of the changes say the new laws protect against voter fraud and can even be more cost-effective. Though in many places the obvious racism of the 1960s is mostly a thing of the past, "what often lingers is a racial mistrust that can make the moving of a polling place from a fellowship hall to a public park seem innocent to some, sinister to others," Fausset notes.

Francis X. De Luca, president of the Civitas Institute, a conservative North Carolina think tank, said, "This is something that local people can work out." However, voting-rights advocates and usually Democrats—whose success in states such as North Carolina depend on good black voter turnout—are less trusting. Others say local election changes are difficult to follow because they no longer need to get approval from the U.S. Justice Department.

The NAACP's Murphy said the reduction in polling places would cause longer lines, which might discourage some voters, and people might show up at the wrong location. Election-board member Alan Langley voiced surprise that anyone would think the proposal "was based on racial, or even partisan, motives," Fausset reports.

Painkillers most popular in the South; Ala. leads

Powerful painkillers are a contributing factor in the the rising rate of overdose deaths in the U.S. Now the government is pointing out the states whose doctors write the most prescriptions, Mike Stobbe writes for The Associated Press.

The reports are part of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's campaign to prevent deaths from prescription opioids such as Vicodin and OxyContin. Drug overdose deaths reached 41,000 in 2011, and 41 percent of them had to do with prescription painkillers. "The state account comes from a database of U.S. retail pharmacies that fill the bulk of prescriptions," Stobbe writes.

In 2012, Southern states had the most prescriptions. Alabama had the most, with 143 for every 100 people, and Tennessee was second. The other leading states were West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana. Southern doctors also prescribed the most antibiotics and stimulants for children. Although chronic disease rates are often higher in the South, research has shown that doesn't explain the disparity.

"Prescriptions go up; deaths go up. Prescriptions go down; deaths go down," said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden. However, evidence to confirm the connection is lacking. The CDC keeps track of death rates but combines all drug overdoses, including heroin and cocaine. Those rankings are not the same as the prescription list. "But officials cite studies that show higher overdose rates when there are more prescriptions of painkillers and larger doses prescribed," Stobbe writes.

To help fix the problem, officials suggest more prescription drug monitoring programs at the state level and laws to stop "pill mills," which are offices and clinics that prescribe too many addictive medicines. In Florida, pill mills became a big issue in the last 10 years, but from 2010-2011, the state set up stricter pain clinic regulations, and police did some raids. "By 2012, prescriptions for oxycodone alone fell 24 percent, and the death rate for prescription drug overdoses dropped 23 percent," Stobbe writes. (Read more)

Weekly editor-publisher wins Virginia prize for editorial leadership in the community for third time

Anne Adams

We're about three months late with this, but when a weekly editor has won a state's top award for editorial leadership three times in six years, it remains newsworthy.

Anne Adams, editor and publisher of The Recorder in Monterey, Va., has won the 27th annual D. Lathan Mims Award for Editorial Leadership in the Community from the Virginia Press Association.

"The citizens of Bath and Highland counties should be glad that Adams is on their side," wrote Marian Anderfuren, associate vice president for interactive communications at Tidewater Community College and a former editor at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk. "She demonstrates deep knowledge and affection for her community, and she beats a steady drum for good government, open official dealings, and plain common sense."

Anderfuren cited Adams' battle with a school superintendent over transparency in the school budget, "outrage at a redistricting ploy by the Virginia Senate that seemed to undermine a favorite son, Creigh Deeds," and her groundbreaking coverage of Deeds' attempted murder by his son, who then committed suicide. The incident highlighted the need for more mental-health beds in the Virginia Alleghenies and resulted in reform.

The award, presented for work published during the 2013 calendar year, is named for the late D. Lathan Mims, a former editor and general manager of the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg and a former president of the press association. Adams won it in 2007-08 and 2010. Only one other editor has won it more times; four-time winner John Edwards, longtime editor of the Smithfield Times, was this year's runner-up. (Read more)

New York anti-fracking ruling could have major impact on the rest of the country

Getty Images by Andrew Burton:
Anti-fracking protesters in New York

Last week's 5-2 ruling by New York's high court that towns can use zoning ordinances to ban hydraulic fracturing could have major implications for the rest of the country. The ruling— stemming from cases in the small towns of Dryden and Middlefield, which had been sued for banning fracking—could open the door for other states to pass similar laws, Steven Mufson reports for The Washington Post.

"There has been a wave of local resolutions, laws and proposals to ban or limit fracking and the disposal of fracking waste, including 35 in New Jersey, 13 in California, 10 in Colorado, 18 in Michigan and many more in Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, according to the activist group Food & Water Watch," Mufson writes. "Even the District has adopted a resolution urging a prohibition on fracking in the George Washington National Forest."

"In the eyes of the oil and gas industry, though, putting the power to regulate fracking in local hands is bad for business and bad for U.S. energy policy," Mufson writes. "Shale gas drilling has unlocked vast reserves, and shale gas now accounts for about 40 percent of total U.S. natural gas production. Without it, companies would be lining up to import natural gas, not export it as many now want to do."

In Colorado, 59 percent of voters in Longmont, Colo., cast ballots in favor of a ban on fracking and waste disposal, even though nationwide industry groups poured money into Longmont Taxpayers for Common Sense, which opposed the ban," Mufson writes. "Since then, four more Colorado towns have also banned or declared a long moratorium on fracking. Court challenges have been filed." (Read more)

Rural residents more likely than urban ones to pay high-deductibles on health insurance

Researchers at the University of Southern Maine found that based on data from the National Health Interview Survey from 2007 to 2010 almost 23 percent of rural residents purchased high-deductible health insurance plans, compared to 20 percent of urban residents, Abigail Gay reports for the Daily Yonder. "The more rural the county, the more likely residents were to purchase high-deductible plans, the study showed. More than a quarter of people living in rural counties that were not adjacent to a metro area had high-deductible plans."

"The study used data from before the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act," Gay writes. "The act’s requirements that many residents get private insurance could cause another spike in the purchase of high-deductible plans, the study said." Researchers found that federal health reform “has the potential to greatly expand health insurance coverage for many rural Americans. However, the impact on access to health care may depend, in part, on the benefit design of the plans into which rural residents enroll.”

The study found that rural residents had a harder time affording prescription drugs in 2013, Gay writes. Also, rural residents spent an average of 26 percent more on out-of-pocket expenses than their urban counterparts who had the same premium. Since 2007, high-deductible enrollments have risen 47 percent. In 2012, about 33 percent of people who had private medical insurance were enrolled in high-deductible plans. (Read more) (Maine Rural Health Research Center graphic)

Rural Radio station provides news, sports and music for rural audience

Rural Radio features everything rural. The station, SiriusXM Channel 80, which went live on July 15, 2013, is the first rural-concentrated station, providing "a variety of programming focused on agriculture, equine, hunting, fishing, western sports and rural lifestyle," Kelsey Johnson reports for RFD-TV. Approaching its one-year anniversary, Rural Radio includes news reports on agriculture, the commodities market, local weather, FFA and music. It also includes results, highlights and individual features from western sports such as bull riding, cutting pen, horse shows and bass fishing. (Read more) (Rural Radio daily schedule)

Both parties attacking House centrists, trying to unseat major players in upcoming elections

As election season nears, House Democrats are trying to unseat Republicans in areas where President Obama won the majority of the vote, while House Republicans are targeting Democrats in areas where Obama lost. Both sides have set their sights on beating incumbents of the opposing party, even if those politicians have more often than not voted in favor of the other party.

"As the ranks of centrist lawmakers in both parties have thinned, political operatives' efforts to oust them have intensified," Kristina Peterson reports for The Wall Street Journal. While once there were 60 to 70 middle-of-the-road Democrats in the House, only nine remain, with two of those retiring. As a result seven Democrats—Collin Peterson (Minn.), Nick Rahall (W.V.), John Barrow (Ga.), Patrick Murphy (Fla.), Pete Gallego (Texas) and two Arizona lawmakers—are the new targets of the GOP. At the same time Democrats are focusing their sights on 14 House Republicans in districts won by Obama in 2012. (WSJ graphic)

Even though Peterson, the ranking Democrat and former chairman of House Agriculture, considers himself a conservative and voted against federal health reform, the National Republican Campaign Committee spent $3.2 million in Minnesota on advertisements attacking Peterson and Rep. Rick Nolan, Peterson writes. Peterson said at a fundraiser, "The Republicans are going after me because there's nobody else to go after. I'm the bottom of the barrel." Peterson won his 2012 re-election with 60 percent of the vote, while Obama earned 44 percent of the vote.

But pro-Republican ads have continued to link Democratic candidates to Obama, even if those candidates rarely vote in favor of the president, Peterson writes. "It is a strategy aimed at tying conservative Democrats to a national party viewed with suspicion at home."  David Wasserman, a House expert at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, told her, "It is simpler for voters to connect the dots between a congressman and a president of the same party than to understand nuances those members are trying to convey."

Democrats are "employing a similar strategy against the 14 House Republicans they are targeting," Peterson writes. "A new paid online ad campaign from Democrats blasted House Republicans for stalling on immigration a year after the Senate passed bipartisan legislation." (Read more)

Drought-stricken Californians wasting water; neighbors encouraged to tattle on overuse

Residents in drought-stricken California are turning against one another, using long-standing grudges as an excuse to try to get their neighbors in trouble. Despite severe drought, many residents have done little to conserve water, and some have continued using it excessively in spite of the consequences, Ian Lovett reports for The New York Times. "In five months since the drought emergency was declared, Californians have cut their water consumption only 5 percent compared with recent years, according to state officials—a far cry from the 20 percent that Gov. Jerry Brown called for in January."

As as result, residents are being asked "to tattle on their neighbors for wasting water—and the residents have responded in droves," Lovett writes. "Sacramento, for instance, has received more than 6,000 reports of water waste this year, up twentyfold from last year," and the city has issued more than 2,000 notices of violations.

And when telling on neighbors doesn't work, "some drought-conscious Californians have turned not only to tattling but also to an age-old strategy to persuade friends and neighbors to cut back: shaming," Lovett writes. "On Twitter, radio shows and elsewhere, Californians are indulging in such sports as shower-shaming (trying to embarrass a neighbor or relative who takes a leisurely wash), car-wash-shaming and lawn-shaming." (This photo of a San Francisco city employee washing a sidewalk with a hose was posted on Twitter)

Officials in Los Angeles are going so far as to "offer residents door hangers, which they are encouraged to slip anonymously around the doorknobs of neighbors whose sprinklers are watering the sidewalk," Lovett writes. " The notices offer a prim reminder of the local water rules and the drought. The Irvine Ranch Water District, meanwhile, shows residents how their water consumption compares with that of other homes in the area—and puts labels on customers’ bills that range from 'low volume' to 'wasteful.'” (Read more)

Nominations for Gish Award for courage, integrity, tenacity in rural journalism must be in mail Aug. 1

Nominations for the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism, given by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, must be mailed by Aug. 1.

Gishes at award announcement, 2004

The award is named for Tom and Pat Gish, who published The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., for more than 51 years. They withstood advertiser boycotts, business competition, declining population, personal attacks, and even the burning of their office to give their readers the kind of journalism often lacking in rural areas, and were the first winners of the award named for them.

Other winners have been the Ezzell family of The Canadian (Tex.) Record, in 2007; James E. Prince III and Stanley Dearman, current and former publishers of The Neshoba Democrat of Philadelphia, Miss., in 2008; Samantha Swindler, editor and publisher of the Headlight Herald in Tillamook, Ore., in 2010 for her work as editor of the Corbin, Ky., Times-Tribune and managing editor of the Jacksonville (Tex.) Daily Progress; in 2011, Stanley Nelson and the Concordia Sentinel of Ferriday, La.; and in 2012, Jonathan and Susan Austin of the Yancey County News in Burnsville, N.C. No award was given in 2013.

The Institute seeks nominations that measure up, at least in major respects, to the records of previous winners, which are detailed at www.RuralJournalism.org. Nominators should send detailed letters to Institute Director Al Cross, explaining how their nominees show the kind of exemplary courage, tenacity and integrity that the Gishes demonstrated in their rigorous pursuit of rural journalism. Detailed documentation does not have to accompany the nomination, but is helpful in choosing finalists, and additional documentation may be requested or required. Questions may be directed to Cross at 859-257-3744 or al.cross@uky.edu. The award will be presented at a dinner in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 13.

Letters should be postmarked by Aug. 1 and mailed to: Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, 122 Grehan Journalism Building, University of Kentucky, Lexington KY 40506-0042.

National Newspaper Association announces individual winners in annual Better Newspaper Contest

The National Newspaper Association, which is the main organization for weekly newspapers but also includes many small dailies, has announced the individual winners in its annual Better Newspaper Contest. It reserved announcement of the general-excellence awards for its Oct. 2-4 convention in San Antonio, but you might make some reasonable guesses from the list of news awards by paper and perhaps the following list of winners by in issue-oriented categories, by circulation and/or frequency classifications:

Best local news coverage (daily and non-daily)
Circulation of 6,000 or more: First place, The Washington Missourian; second, The Standard-Banner, Jefferson City, Tenn.; third, the Cape Gazette, Lewes, Del; honorable mention, The Livingston Parish News, Denham Springs, La.
Circulation 3,000 to 5,999: The Alamance News, Graham, N.C; second, the Mount Desert Islander, Bar Harbor, Me.; third, The North Scott Press, Eldridge, Iowa; honorable mention, the Wise County Messenger, Decatur, Tex.

Click on image for larger version

Under 3,000: Sangre de Cristo Chronicle, Angel Fire, N.M.; second, the Ozona Stockman of Texas; third, Nebraska's West Point News; honorable mention, North Dakota's Tioga Tribune.

Best investigative story or series
Dailies: James Beaty, Kandra Wells, Kevin Harvison, Brandy Jeffreys of the McAlester News-Capital, for a package of stories on the 40th anniversary of an Oklahoma prison riot; second and third place, Nick Hytrek of the Sioux City Journal, for stories on a cold case and early release of Iowa prison inmates.
Non-dailies, circulation 10,000 or more: First place, Tom Dunlop, Sara Brown and photographer Ray Ewing, The Vineyard Gazette, Edgartown, Mass., for a series on coastal erosion; second, Jennifer Johnson, The Beaumont Examiner, on waste in a Texas school district.
Non-dailies, circulation 3,000-9,999: First place, Mike Koshmrl of the Jackson Hole News & Guide, for a story on the local airport board making regular "official" trips to Hawaii (here's a follow-up); second, Jared Strong of the Times Herald in Carroll, Iowa, on a killer who fell through cracks in the system; third, Publisher Tom Boney Jr., Tomas Murawski, Janice Crisp and Kristy Bailey of The Alamance News, Graham, N.C., for an examination of a state agency's cases against the local sheriff.
Non-dailies, under 3,000: First place, Phil Johnson of The Western News, Libby, Mont., for stories (here's one) on overtaxation; second, Melissa Meinzer of Missouri Lawyers Weekly, St. Louis, for stories on lawyer discipline hearings; third, Amy R. Sisk and Resa Haukedahl of the Tioga Tribune, for stories showing the need for more law enforcement in the North Dakota oil-boom town; honorable mention, Bill Moss of the Hendersonville Lightning in North Carolina, for "Legal fights imperil restitution promises."

Best editorial (daily and non-daily)
10,000 or more: The Taos News, for an editorial by Joan Livingston criticizing the city council and mayor for circumventing of New Mexico's open-meetings law.
6,000-9,999: The Cody Enterprise of Wyoming, for an editorial by Bruce McCormack criticizing a state representative's rudeness.
3,000-5,999: The Hutchinson Leader of Minnesota for "County has gone gun crazy," an editorial by Doug Hanneman.
Under 3,000: The Sangre de Cristo Chronicle of Angel Fire, N.M., for "Red River is not above the law, an editorial by Jesse Chaney.

Best editorial pages (daily and non-daily)
6,000 or more: First place, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle of Cheyenne; second, the Leelanau Enterprise of Michigan; third, The Washington Missourian; honorable mention, the Antelope Valley Press of California and the Ellsworth American of Maine.
Under 6,000: First place, the Mount Desert Islander of Bar Harbor, Maine (same ownership as the Ellsworth American); second, the West Point News of Nebraska; third, The Clarendon Enterprise of Texas; honorable mention, the Iowa Falls Times-Citizen.

Best environmental story (daily and non-daily)
9,000 or more: Matthew Renda and photographer John Hart of The Union, Grass Valley, Calif., for a series on the Yuba River.
Under 9,000: David Bunker of Moonshine Ink, Truckee, Calif., for a story on quagga mussels in Lake Tahoe.

Best health story (daily and non-daily)
6,000 or more: First place, Megan Moser of The Manhattan Mercury of Kansas; second, Ginny Privitar of The Chronicle, Chester, N.Y., third, Starla Pointer of teh News-Register, McMinnvile, Ore.
Under 6,000: First place, Luige del Puerto and Jeremy Duda, the Arizona Capitol Times, Phoenix; second, Maek Good of the Mount Desert Islander; third, Ellary Prenice of The Paynesville Press in Minnesota.

Best education story
Dailies: Aerin Curtis of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, for a story on new teacher-evaluation standards.
Large non-dailies: Steve Marion and Ronnie Housley of The Standard-Banner of Jefferson City, Tenn., for a story about reading that was easy reading: "It isn't long, but full of good writing," the judges wrote.
Small non-dailies: Claire K. Racine of the Westmore News, Port Chester, N.Y., for "Bullied student slits her wrists." (She survived.)

Freedom of information (daily and non-daily): Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, for editorials on openness at the University of Wyoming; second, Arizona Capital Times, Phoenix, for reports on lobbying.

Best website (daily and non-daily: Hendersonville (N.C.) Lightning; second, Santa Clarita Valley Signal of California; third (tie), the News-Register, McMinnville, Ore., and Lakota Country Times, Martin, S.D.

Other categories include feature story, localized story, performing arts story, review, obituary, cartoon, column, typography, special section, photo essay, and use of photographs. A list of all winners by category is here. The contest also includes an advertising division. For more information about the contest and the convention, see www.nnaweb.org.

Big gas company offers Pennsylvania residents $50,000 not to sue for current or future problems

One company has found a way to avoid lawsuits stemming from complaints about noise and air quality from fracking practices. EQT Corporation offered residents living near a gas well in Washington County, Pennsylvania $50,000 "if they would agree to release the company from any legal liability, for current operations as well as those to be carried out in the future," Naveena Sadasivam reports for ProPublica. "It covered potential health problems and property damage, and gave the company blanket protection from any kind of claim over noise, dust, light, smoke, odors, fumes, soot, air pollution or vibrations." (ProPublica photo: Oil and gas well pad in Washington County)

"The agreement also defined the company's operations as not only including drilling activity but the construction of pipelines, power lines, roads, tanks, ponds, pits, compressor stations, houses and buildings," Sadasivam writes. Doug Clark, a gas-lease attorney in Pennsylvania who mainly represents landowners, told Sadasivam, "The release is so incredibly broad and such a laundry list. You're releasing for everything including activity that hasn't even occurred yet. It's crazy."

While these type of agreements are common in areas around airports, wind farms and landfills, it's rare for one to include oil and gas wells, Sadasivam writes. Clark told her, "This is only the second time I've seen one. They're absolutely not common at all."

EQT said about 85 percent of residents signed agreements "but some of the residents have refused to negotiate with the company," Sadasivam writes.  Homeowner Gary Baumgardner, who was approached by EQT with the offer in January, told her, "We're being pushed out of our home and they want to insult us with this offer." (Read more)