Business startups are lagging in smaller counties

Starting a new rural business and keeping it running is becoming increasingly difficult. "From 2010 through 2014, U.S. counties with 100,000 or fewer residents combined to lose more businesses than they created—despite a growing national economy and a falling unemployment rate," Jim Tankersely reports for The Washington Post. "In the recovery beginning in 1992, by comparison, those counties created a third of the nation’s new businesses on net." (Post graphic)

"In the ’90s recovery, less-populated counties accounted for more than 1 in 4 new jobs in the country," Tankersely writes. "In the recovery beginning in 2002, that had fallen to 1 in 5. In this recovery, it is less than 1 in 10. Nearly 2 out of 3 rural counties lost businesses, on net, from 2010 to 2014. That is up from just over 2 in 5 counties in the early 2000s and just under 1 in 5 in the ’90s. The counties shedding establishments span the country and include almost every variety of rural areas, from farming and manufacturing communities in Missouri to coal-reliant swatches of Appalachia to coastal counties in the Pacific Northwest where the timber and fishing industries have dwindled."

According to data from a Brookings Institution's analysis of Moody’s Analytics the 100 largest metros in the U.S. recovered all the jobs lost—6 million total—during the Great Recssion, Tankersley writes. "The rest of the country, combined, was barely 300,000 jobs over its pre-recession peak."

One problem is that "the sort of businesses and jobs they used to create in economic expansions simply aren't appearing at the same rate anymore, particularly in blue-collar industries such as construction and manufacturing," Tankersley writes in a separate story. The other problem is that six metros—San Francisco, San Jose, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.—account for two-thirds of all venture capital money. Most of those companies are high-tech startups. During the first five years of economic recovery 20 cities—mostly in Silicon Valley or New York City—combined for half of America's net new business formation.

New rules will make it harder for many elderly, poor, black and Latino voters to cast ballots

New rules created ostensibly to stop voter fraud are making it more difficult for poor, black, Latino and elderly Americans, particularly in the South, to register for elections, Sari Horwitz reports for The Washington Post. "In November, 17 states will have voting restrictions in place for the first time in a presidential election. Eleven of those states will require their residents to show a photo ID. They include swing states such as Wisconsin and states with large African American and Latino populations, such as North Carolina and Texas. Many of the residents struggling to obtain a valid photo ID are elderly and poor and were born in homes rather than hospitals. As a result, birth certificates were often lost or names were misspelled in official city records."

Supporters of the laws argue that everyone should easily be able to get a photo ID, while "opponents say that the laws were designed to target people more likely to vote Democratic," Horwitz writes. "Many election experts say that the process for obtaining a photo ID can be far more difficult than it looks for hundreds of thousands of people across the country who do not have the required photo identification cards." (Post map)

In Texas, which has one of the strictest voter laws in the nation, a federal court found that "608,470 registered voters don’t have the forms of identification that the state now requires for voting," Horwitz writes. Overall, "about 11 percent of Americans do not have government-issued photo identification cards, such as a driver’s license or a passport, according to Wendy Weiser of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law."

University of California at San Diego researchers analyzed turnout in elections between 2008 and 2012, finding "substantial drops in turnout for minorities under strict voter ID laws.” The study's authors wrote: “These results suggest that by instituting strict photo ID laws, states could minimize the influence of voters on the left and could dramatically alter the political leaning of the electorate."

Retired journalist says federal buyout of bankrupt coal firms' land could revitalize Appalachia

James Branscome

James Branscome, who covered the Tennessee Valley Authority and strip mining for The Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg, Ky., in the 1970s before becoming managing director of equity research for Standard and Poor's, has a big idea that could revitalize economies in Appalachia hurt by the loss of coal jobs.

"Anyone who has spent time in the mountains and hollows from Middlesboro, Ky., to Beckley, W.Va., understands that most of the land is owned either by coal and timber companies or the federal government with its national forests and parks," Branscome wrote in an essay appearing in several Appalachian newspapers. "Coal companies alone own 1.3 million acres in the Cumberlands of Kentucky and even more in the Alleghenies of West Virginia. The federal government is actually the largest single landowner in Appalachia."

"With the region’s largest coal companies in bankruptcy or nearly so, I have an idea for Clinton and Trump: Let’s buy those bankrupted acres and release some of those federal holdings," he writes. "Then we can give the people something they have not had since industrialization and coal mining started in Appalachia in the 1880s — land. Land for farming, for gardens, for housing, for grazing cattle, horses and hogs, and for sustainable forestry."

"Let’s call this the Appalachian Homestead Act, in homage to the federal initiative that helped settle the West and build wealth in the 19th century," he writes. "The Appalachian Homestead Act may be today’s best solution to the enduring problem of mountain poverty. And it may well be the most important opportunity for a new generation looking for a place to build an economy and a community that make sense in a time of global warming and economic dysfunction."

"This is the perfect policy for both candidates," he writes. "Trump could probably make some real deals negotiating with these bankrupt companies. Clinton might find favor in a region that has not looked kindly on her of late, trimming some federal holdings, swapping with others, all the while turning property back to mountain communities." (Read more)

Branscome, who lives in Montrose, Colo., is a member of the national advisory board of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.

U.S. is importing more beef than it exports; USDA only highlighting the positive side of trade

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is only highlighting the positives of trade in beef, obscuring the fact that the nation is importing more beef than it exports, Harwood D. Schaffer and Daryll E. Ray of the University of Tennessee write in their latest "Policy Pennings" column. The April issue of Livestock and Poultry: World Markets and Trade (L&P), produced by the Foreign Agricultural Service and USDA, says "Trade of All Meats to Expand in 2016." For beef and veal it says "Exports by major traders are forecast 1 percent higher to 9.6 million tons as growth to Asia offsets soft demand in other regions" and U.S. "exports are expected to grow 8 percent as production expansion and declining U.S. beef prices spur demand. Lower Australian supplies will enable the U.S. to regain some market share in Asian markets. However, exports will remain below the 5-year average as the strong dollar continues to hamper shipments, especially to Canada and Mexico."

"If the decline in price is greater than the 8 percent that beef and veal exports are expected to grow, we could be selling more and still see total revenue fall," Schaffer and Ray write. “We understand that the USDA may want to put a positive spin on an otherwise difficult picture for U.S. cattle producers, but we believe that in doing so the department does farmers and ranchers a disservice with analysis like that found in the April 2016 L&M. It is particularly problematic when we hear people following the lead of the USDA in promoting the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement by predicting an increase beef exports but not discussing its impact on U.S. imports.”

"When government publications talk about trade, as referenced in the title of L&P, they should be expected to discuss both sides of the trade equation, even when the numbers may not be to the liking of US producers," Schaffer and Ray write. "To make informed policy evaluations, policy makers and producers alike need full information." (Read more)

Each week, newspaper makes an obit a feature; latest one is on famed Appalachian Trail hiker

The Valley News, a daily newspaper in the Upper Connecticut River Valley, publishes a weekly feature called "A Life," in which the paper turns an obituary of someone with local ties into a fuller portrait of that person. On Sunday it featured Leonard "Baltimore Jack" Tarlin (Mike Sisemore photo), a renowned hiker who walked the entire Appalachian Trail eight times. Tarlin died May 3 at the age of 57.

Josh Weinreb started the story this way: Mike Sisemore was heading north on the trail 17 years ago "and found himself on a slow-moving stretch up a hill in Virginia. About 100 yards ahead he saw a disheveled form. Another hiker, presumably, but this one was different. His backpack was crooked, with long straps hanging from its sides. His shoes were untied. He wore a bandana on his head. He wore black nylon shorts and a black T-shirt."

"As Sisemore put it, the hiker was 'bouncing' along the trail," Weinreb writes. "And then Sisemore saw him fall, slip on a mud patch and front flip into a bed of rocks. When Sisemore caught up, the hiker was sitting on the ground holding his broken glasses. 'You got any tape?' he asked Sisemore in a grizzled voice. It was, Sisemore knew immediately, Baltimore Jack, a legend along the Appalachian Trail."

Tarlin "was known for his gruff personality, his deep knowledge of history and his uncanny thoughtfulness,' Weinreb writes. "He also had strong roots in Hanover and thru-hiked the trail eight times. He “had no need for the finer things in life,” Sisemore told Weinreb,. “He was absolutely content sleeping in a sleeping bag in the middle of February under a tree in New Hampshire. Nobody could understand that about Jack. He just didn’t need a lot of things in his life. He was mobile. He carried his life in his backpack." (Read more)

The Valley News is based in Lebanon, N.H., just south of the trail's crossing of the river.

Soybean farmers concerned about using new Roundup Ready product not yet approved in Europe

Grain farmers are being warned to be wary of planting Monsanto's latest biotech soybean due to concerns that it has not been approved for sale in the European Union, Tom Meersman reports for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Roundup Ready 2 Xtend, is "a genetically modified soybean seed that is resisistant to a pair of herbicides called glyphosate and dicamba." It "was developed because weeds have become resistant to Roundup Ready varieties with traits that used glyphosate alone. The genetic modifications in the new seed allow both pesticides to be used without harming the soybeans." (Associated Press photo by Dan Gill: Roundup Ready soybeans)

Concern about marketability the European Union is leading to fear that the new bean "will cause price declines, confusion and disruption in international trade," Meersman writes. "The reason it’s a risk is because unapproved soybeans and approved soybeans often get mixed together in grain elevators, unit trains or ships when they’re exported, and it’s difficult and expensive for grain buyers and sellers to try to keep them separate."

In Minnesota in 2015 "farmers planted 7.6 million acres of soybeans, making it the nation’s fourth-largest producer with estimated sales valued at $3.25 billion," Meersman writes. "A similar problem with unapproved seeds occurred in 2013 and 2014 with a different seed company and a different market. China turned away shipments of U.S. corn containing a Syngenta AG trait called Viptera — engineered to control insects—that it had not approved. The resulting confusion resulted in lawsuits against Syngenta by Cargill Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Co. and individual producers claiming millions of dollars in lost sales or lower prices." (Read more)

How much do people in your state drink and dope?

People in Colorado love marijuana, cocaine, alcohol and painkillers used for non-medical reasons. Colorado is the only state where residents rank in the top 10 in all four categories, according to a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration survey of the proportion of population 12 and older who use each substance, Keith Humphreys reports for The Washington Post.

Reported marijuana use was highest in the states where it is legal—Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, Humphreys writes. "Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire are leading consumers of alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, with Maine and Connecticut also being leaders in two of those three. New York, in contrast, is a top consumer of only cocaine." Three border states—Arizona, California and New Mexico—have high rates of cocaine use, while Arizona is also a leader among opioid use.

"As the most religious region of the country, the Southeast and Bible Belt have long tended to have lower consumption of intoxicating substances—particularly alcohol—than the rest of the country," Humphreys writes. "Yet non-medical painkiller use is an exception to this general rule, with most of its top consumers being in or near this region: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Virginia, Maryland and Ohio. The Midwest and Plains states are not leading consumers of any of the three illicit drugs. But Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota are all national leaders in their proportion of drinkers, continuing a pattern established during the period of heavy migration from Scandinavia and beer-loving, beer-brewing Germany." (Post map)

Residents of Syria, Va., mostly favor ban on Syrian refugees, and many Americans agree

U.S. Beacon map: Syria is in Madison County

The rural town of Syria, Va., is saying no to Syrian refugees and yes to Donald Trump. And a lot of the country feels likewise, Mary Jordan reports for The Washington Post.

"Unlike its faraway namesake, this Syria has no Muslims. It’s a pretty village with trout in its rivers and black bears in its hills, home to many who cheer one of Donald Trump’s most derided proposals: a ban on Muslims," Jordan writes. Syria, which lies along the Old Blue Ridge Turnpike at the edge of Shenandoah National Park, is a Republican-leaning village of about 203.

"Of all Trump’s ideas, the ban on Muslims is considered by his critics to be particularly off the rails," Jordan writes. "With 1.7 billion Muslims in the world, it aims to shut out nearly one in four people on the planet. It has been called racist, unconstitutional and unenforceable. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has said that it is 'shameful' and 'dangerous.' Yet the idea turns out to have broader support than many of Trump’s critics expected. Nationally, 64 percent of Republican voters said in a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll that they approve of the ban—and so did 45 percent of independents—while 26 percent of Democrats did."

Many Trump supporters in Syria say the businessman can be over the top at times—and acknowledge that the ban on Syrian nationals will probably never happen—but like the sentiment behind the statement, Jordan writes. Syria resident Laurie Richards said "no other candidate is telling her what she thinks: Just about anybody can set foot in the U.S., and those days should end." But others think Trump's statements are dangerous. Another resident, Molly Sanford, asked Jordan, “Ban people of a certain religion in a country founded on the idea of freedom of religion? More puzzling than what he is saying is that he has so many followers.”

Jordan writes, "An hour’s drive from Syria, leaders in Northern Virginia’s growing American Muslim community say the way Trump talks about Islam is bigoted and scary, whether he intends to follow through on a ban or not. But around this village of white clapboard Christian churches, many are supporting Trump and they welcome his proposed ban, even though they said it will never pass Congress—and shouldn’t." More significantly, Syria farmer Jimmy Graves said, "People hear a new, clear voice saying the country need to do more to 'keep out people who are unsuitable'.” (Read more)

Poor pay more for everyday goods because stores they shop stock fewer new products, study says

Poor people pay more for everyday purchases, says a study by Harvard University graduate student Xavier Jaravel. He found "that prices are increasing by more than 2 percent a year on average for goods purchased by consumers with household incomes under $30,000, but by just 1.4 percent annually for those with incomes above $100,000," Max Ehrenfreund reports for The Washington Post. "While apparently small, that divergence—if it continues—would become hugely important in a relatively short period of time. After 20 years, for example, every dollar in the pocket of a poor consumer would be worth just 88 cents compared to what a wealthier consumer would be able to buy with it at the grocery store, given the differences in inflation and in both consumers' preferences."

Those numbers are especially bad news in rural areas, where residents are poorer and often have less access to big discount stores. Poor people with less money to spend each week buy items such as toilet paper in smaller packages, "increasing the prices they pay," Ehrenfreund writes. "In addition, poor families must rely on a whole range of alternative financial services, which might charge exorbitant fees and expose customers to serious risks." (Post graphic)

The study found that the difference between what poor and rich people pay for products "resulted from the fact that within specific kinds of products—beef jerky, say, or tortilla chips—more affluent consumers were buying premium brands, and those brands' prices were more stable over time," Ehrenfreund writes. Jaravel "found that relatively few new products made it into stores that weren't premium goods. In other words, poorer consumers were more likely to be buying the same products from year to the next. When a new product arrives on shelves, retailers typically have to discount the price of older products somewhat. Using data on markups from a large national grocer with a few hundred stores, Jaravel found that the absence of new products for poorer consumers allowed grocers to increase the prices on the old products more from year to year."

"Jaravel's research contradicts a couple of assumptions that economists typically make about consumer goods," Ehrenfreund writes. "One is that when new kinds of products are introduced, they'll be purchased mainly by the wealthiest consumers, who will pay higher prices for them. Over time, prices will fall, and less affluent consumers will purchase the goods at lower prices. Jaravel found little evidence of that pattern in the data. Whole categories of new, premium products never made it into the shopping cart for poorer families." (Read more)

Cops call growing movement of rural, white, armed citizens who distrust government 'Vanilla ISIS'

A growing movement of "largely white and rural" residents are taking up arms to defend themselves against a government they distrust, Kevin Sullivan reports for The Washington Post. The groups, which refer to themselves as patriots, demand "that the federal government adhere to the Constitution and stop what they see as systematic abuse of land rights, gun rights, freedom of speech and other liberties." BJ Soper, leader of Central Oregon Constitutional Guard, a group of about 30 started two years ago, told Sullivan, “It doesn’t say in our Constitution that you can’t stand up and defend yourself. We’ve let the government step over the line and rule us, and that was never the intent of this country.” (Post photo by Matt McClain: Soper)

Law enforcement officials say the groups are "dangerous, delusional and sometimes violent, and they say that their numbers are growing amid a wave of anger at the government that has been gaining strength since 2008, a surge that coincided with the election of the first black U.S. president and a crippling economic recession," Sullivan writes. "Law enforcement officials and the watchdog groups that track the self-styled 'patriot' groups call them anti-government extremists, militias, armed militants or even domestic terrorists." Some even jokingly call them “Y’all Qaeda” or “Vanilla ISIS.”

There are currently about 1,000 such groups, up from 150 in 2008, said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremism. "Potok and other analysts, including law enforcement officials who track the groups, said their supporters number in the hundreds of thousands, counting people who signal their support in more passive ways, such as following the groups on social media," Sullivan reports. "The Facebook page of the Oath Keepers, a group of former members of police forces and the military, for example, has more than 525,000 'likes.'"

"Much of the movement traces its roots to the deadly 1990s confrontations between civilians and federal agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and in Waco, Tex., that resulted in the deaths of as many as 90," Sullivan writes. "Timothy Mc­Veigh cited both events before he was executed for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, and he said he had deliberately chosen a building housing federal government agencies. Now a 'second wave' is spreading across the country, especially in the West, fueled by the internet and social media." (Read more)

Stargazing lights up the sky in many rural areas

One advantage of living in rural areas is that the night sky can often be more clearly seen than in urban areas, making it easier to see stars and the Milky Way galaxy. In Emmet County, Michigan officials at The Headlands International Dark Sky Park are trying to make night-sky preservation a state priority, Marie Orttenburger reports for the Great Lakes Echo, a project of the journalism department at Michigan State University. (Photo by Tony Andrea: Milky Way)

"There’s yet another natural resource we’re squandering, but the fix is easy, Just turn off the lights," Orttenburger. "We don’t really think of the night sky as a natural resource, maybe because we don’t see it as much more than an aesthetic pleasure – if we see it at all. But the truth is, a dark night sky plays much more of a role in the natural world than we credit it for, and light pollution interferes with that role." To listen to a podcast with Orttenburger interviewing members of The Headlands International Dark Sky Park click here.

W.Va. town is for sale for $1 million; part of NSA base that allegedly collected cellphone data

If you have a cool $1 million sitting around, a rural West Virginia town three hours outside Washington, D.C., could be yours for the taking. Sugar Grove, W.Va, which includes "80 homes on 122 acres, together with a gym, full-size basketball court, bowling alley, soccer field, and police and fire stations," is on the market for $1 million, Lori Aratani reports for The Washington Post. Keeping up the extensive grounds costs the federal government about $4.6 million per year.

The town, which also includes 12 guest cabins, is "nestled between the Allegheny Mountains and the South Fork of the Potomac River," Aratani writes. It's seven miles from George Washington National Forest "in the midst of a 13,000-square-mile area of the U.S. known as the National Radio Quiet Zone. All radio communications in the area are restricted." Online bidding began in February, but has yet to receive any takers.

The town's lifeblood was the Sugar Grove Station naval base, which closed in September, leading to mass layoffs, Aratani writes. One problem is the secrecy of the base's nature. Documents leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed that the base was "one of 10 'signals-intelligence activity designators' used by the National Security Agency to collect international cellphone location information and other data. An array of giant parabolic dishes obscured by thick forest cover are housed on a mountain ridge just over a mile southeast of the main property. These, however, are not part of the sale. The NSA, through a spokeswoman, had no comment on the matter."

"For nearly a half-century, the base served as an anchor for the tiny towns that dot rural Pendleton County—7,471 residents spread out over nearly 700 square miles. In an area where good jobs are hard to come by or require a one-hour trip over winding mountain roads, the loss of civilian jobs with their benefits and health coverage was deeply felt," Aratani writes. William Smith Jr. is the only employee on the base, hired to take care of the property until an owner can be found. When asked by a prospective buyer the nature of the base, he responds, “Don’t know. And if I did, I don’t know that I could tell you.”

Lack of doctors and insurers, hospital closures and more make rural health outlook 'grim,' writer says

"In many rural counties, due to a range of contributing factors — including a shortage of doctors, a sicker-than-anticipated population, lack of competition in the marketplace, the closing of hospitals and a raging opioid crisis — the outlook is grim" for health care under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, John Collins writes for the liberal magazine In These Times.

Collins points to the demise of more than half of the state-based health cooperatives that provide price competition for traditional, for-profit insurers; and UnitedHealth Group's recent decision to pull out of most state Obamacare exchanges next year, coming after "other insurance providers have abandoned their less profitable rural exchanges." He notes the Kaiser Family Foundation estimate that 11 percent of policyholders will be in counties with only one insurer, and 18 percent will be in counties with two — up from 2 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

"By early 2017, The Wall Street Journal reports, it is estimated that in more than 650 counties — 70 percent of which consist of rural populations — only one option for health care coverage will be offered on the ACA exchanges," Collins writes. "According to Inovalon, the health-care information and technology firm . . . cited in the WSJ piece, rural exchanges are having trouble realizing a profit for two reasons—people are requiring more care (they’re sicker) than anticipated and the cost of that care is significantly more than it is in urban areas."

At the end of his story, Collins looks ahead and then puts his tongue in cheek: "The next administration will ultimately decide whether this six-year-old law gets put into therapy, replaced by a single-payer healthcare system for all Americans, or triumphantly repealed and replaced with something so fantastic that you can’t even imagine how good it is going to be."

Congress reaches agreement to overhaul U.S. chemical safety laws for first time in 40 years

UPDATE, May 27: The House passed the bill 403-12 but Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has delayed a Senate vote on the bill, calling it "rushed."

"Congress has reached agreement on the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. chemical safety laws in 40 years, a rare bipartisan accord that has won the backing of both industry officials and some of the Hill’s most liberal lawmakers," Juliet Eilperin and Darryl Fears report for The Washington Post. "The compromise, which lawmakers unveiled Thursday, will provide the industry with greater certainty while empowering the Environmental Protection Agency to obtain more information about a chemical before approving its use. And because the laws involved regulate thousands of chemicals in products as diverse as detergents, paint thinners and permanent-press clothing, the result also will have a profound effect on Americans’ everyday lives."

The measure, which has the tacit approval of the Obama administration and the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), "could come up for a vote in both chambers as soon as next week," Eilperin and Fears write. "After passage, the EPA must start reviewing at least 10 toxic chemicals that permeate communities across the country, a list that is likely to include asbestos, formaldehyde and flame retardants. Many are interwoven into people’s experience with everyday products, including the ink on their morning newspaper and the fabric protector on their family’s sofa."

The deal "gives the EPA the power to require companies to provide health and safety data for untested chemicals and to prevent substances from reaching the market if they have not been determined to be safe," Eilperin and Fears write. "Under current law, the agency must prove that a chemical poses a potential risk before it can demand data or require testing, and that substance can automatically enter the marketplace after 90 days. In the past four decades, the EPA has required testing for just 200 of thousands of chemicals, and it has issued regulations to control only five of them. More than 8,000 chemicals are produced in the U.S. at an annual rate of more than 25,000 pounds each, according to the agency. Under the bill, instead of going through a lengthy rulemaking process to trigger product testing, the EPA can order companies to test their new products. The measure also imposes user fees on industry to help expand the testing of chemicals."

"In return, chemical manufacturers will be subject to a single regulatory system, although states will still have the right to seek a federal waiver to impose their rules on a given chemical," Eilperin and Fears write. "Currently, California, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington have placed their own restrictions on some chemicals in the face of federal regulatory inaction.The bill’s provisions include prioritizing the review of chemicals stored near drinking water as well as those that are human carcinogens and highly toxic with chronic exposure. House Democrats were still seeking to insert language that would allow some states in the midst of regulating chemicals the chance to finalize those actions before the EPA starts reviewing its first batch of chemicals under the law." (Read more)

Coal bankruptcies leaving many states with IOUs that could make taxpayers fund mine cleanup

The widespread practice of "self-bonding" in the coal industry could end up leaving taxpayers footing the bill for cleaning up an increasing number of abandoned mines, Mead Gruver reports for The Associated Press. Self-bonding allows companies with certain assets "to promise to eventually cover the cost of cleaning up abandoned mines without first setting aside the necessary money. Because of self-bonding, billions of dollars in legally required reclamation funding exist only as IOUs, without dedicated assets or bonds backed by third-party investors. Nationwide, self-bonding in the coal-mining industry tops $3.3 billion. That includes $2.3 billion in IOUs that the three biggest bankrupt coal companies—Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Peabody—owe in five states, according to an Associated Press analysis of bonding obligations in the top 16 coal-mining states." 

"The dilemma for state and federal regulators got even bleaker when the nation's largest coal producer, Peabody, filed for Chapter 11 protection from its creditors in April," Gruver writes. "Peabody alone holds more than $1.1 billion in self-bonding obligations for mines in Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico and Wyoming, where its North Antelope Rochelle mine produces almost 12 percent of the nation's coal. ...Wyoming, which produces almost 40 percent of the nation's coal, has more than $2 billion in self-bonded coal mining, almost two-thirds of the nationwide total."

"The 1977 Surface Mining and Reclamation Act enabled companies to open strip mines on the condition that assets be set aside to contain any pollution and return the mines to something resembling the pre-existing landscape," Gruver writes. "But companies with debts no greater than 2.5 times their net worth were allowed to avoid tying up capital by "self-bonding" instead. Self-bonding has grown to represent more than a third of the industry's cleanup costs. With several companies now in bankruptcy, states have reached agreements to secure pennies on the dollar for reclamation should Chapter 11 reorganization proceed to Chapter 7 liquidation."

Drones will be the future of collecting agricultural data, says Agriculture Dept. technology officer

Drones are the future of advanced agriculture data, said Michael Valivullah, chief technology officer at the National Agricultural Statistics Service, which is housed at the Department of Agriculture, Corinne Lestch reports for FedScoop. Valivullah, who was speaking Wednesday in Washington D.C. at the MarkLogic Data Innovation Summit, said, “Farmers are going to be more dependent on drones. Drones are a lot cheaper and can gather high-resolution, sensitive data. So a farmer or rancher will be able to understand what they have in their operation.”

Of the more than 2.3 billion acres of land across the U.S., about 900 million are farmland, Valivullah said. "USDA keeps track of farmers who produce and sell products that are worth more than $1,000 in a central database. The agency once used traditional paper and pens to collect information, but it started sending out electronic forms—as well as iPads and tablets—a few years ago to researchers in the field." Valivullah said drones will be a better way of collecting data.

Bayer looks to acquire Monsanto; would make agriculture 40% of combined entity’s business

"Bayer AG has approached Monsanto Co. about a takeover that would fuse two of the world’s largest suppliers of crop seeds and pesticides, the companies said," Jacob Bunge and Dana Mattioli report for The Wall Street Journal. "Details of the offer couldn’t be learned and it was unclear whether Monsanto would be receptive to it. Should there be a deal, it could be valued at more than $42 billion, which is Monsanto’s current market capitalization. Should the bid succeed, a combination of the companies could boast $67 billion in annual sales and create the world’s largest seed and crop-chemical company."

Mergers an acquisitions are booming in the industry. Last month Sygenta struck a deal to be acquired by Chem China, a state-owned enterprise. DuPont and Dow have announced they are merging. If all the deals go through, it's estimated that three of these companies will control more than half of global seed sales, Dan Charles reports for NPR.

If Bayer absorbed St. Louis-based Monsanto, the world’s top seed company in terms of sales, it "would push Bayer far more deeply into agriculture, which currently accounts for about 22 percent of the German company’s business," Bunge and Mattioli write. "Monsanto’s $15 billion in seed and herbicide sales could make agriculture about 40 percent of the combined entity’s business, with the rest coming from pharmaceuticals and consumer health products."

"Folding Monsanto’s world-leading seed franchise and its trademark Roundup herbicide business into Bayer would create a company that could market products ranging from Aspirin pain-relief pills to crop genetics that enable plants to withstand bugs and weedkillers," Bunge and Mattioli write. "The combination would sell about 28 percent of the world’s pesticides and about 36 percent of U.S. corn seeds and 28 percent of soybean seeds, according to Morgan Stanley estimates." (Read more)

UPDATED: Newspaper lobbying group says new overtime rule will reduce jobs, news coverage

The main lobbying group for community newspapers is objecting to the Obama administration's new rule making more employees eligible for overtime pay. The rule "will create disruption at small newspapers and likely lead to more job cutbacks" and less news coverage, said National Newspaper Association President Chip Hutcheson, publisher of The Times-Leader in Princeton, Ky.

The new rule, set to take effect Dec. 1, will make employees eligible for overtime if they earn less than $913 a week or $47,476 a year. The current threshold is about $23,660.

An NNA survey suggested that the rule would force a third of community to eliminate staff positions or reduce news coverage. Many papers "are already under financial pressure from weak local economies and they can't afford to pay additional overtime," NNA said in a statement. "For them, the unintended consequences include lost jobs and less news coverage."

UPDATE, May 20: However, those surveyed apparently did not know that the Labor Department had retained an exemption for weekly newspapers with a circulation under 4,000, while limiting it to "employees in rural areas," said Richard Karpel of American Pressworks, NNA's lobbying contractor. "The entire section is a bit perplexing so we will be seeking clarification about why it was included. . . . There is an indication that group-owned newspapers must total all circulations together," meaning that "even if one or two properties fall below the 4,000 threshold, their circulation total would be included in the cumulative total and not subject to the exemption."

Hutcheson had rejected calls by small businesses to introduce a more modified and gradually-rising threshold that sets overtime-eligible employees apart from professional staff. "NNA agreed that it was past time to adjust the salary levels," he said. "The Labor Department failed to do its job for a decade by creating more graduated adjustments that small businesses could live with. Then it decided to try to force the small business economy to leap the whole chasm in a single bound. Its ruling fails to recognize the realities of a slow-growing business climate. It also ignores the big differences between costs of living and earnings potential in small towns and major cities."

NNA said that "newsrooms have difficulty managing a 40-hour week, and that legal barriers for private-sector enterprises to offer meaningful flex time meant that news and sports staff could not take advantage of time off during slow seasons to compensate for extra hours spent on breaking news and sporting events. NNA requested consideration of a regional scale and joined the Newspaper Association of America in suggesting that thresholds should be set at a level of twice the annual earnings of a minimum wage earner. The minimum wage index would have given states and cities the ability to effectively set the overtime-eligibility standard."

NNA is now backing legislation (S. 2707 and H.R. 4773) that would block the rule and require the Labor Department to do more analysis of the impact on small businesses, nonprofits and public employers.

Rural Western residents say local papers need more economic news, rigorous reporting

Only 21 percent of people in a sample of the rural West believe their local news is reliable and consistent, says a study by Solutions Journal Network for the LOR Foundation. The study consisted of a focus group (164 people) and a Google survey (1,540 people) in 10 communities in Colorado, Montana and New Mexico and analysis of a week's worth of stories—900 in all—from local and regional outlets in the targeted area, Leah Todd reports for Solutions Journal Network.

The survey found that 52 percent of respondents said "their local news is, at best, sometimes valuable, and a significant number said their local news is rarely or never relevant," Todd writes. Still, newspapers are the No. 1 source for local news, with 81.7 percent of respondents from the focus group saying they get local news from the newspaper, 63.4 percent from interactions with other people, 44.5 percent from local government and community organizations and 40.8 percent from social media. Newspapers also tied with television for top news source among rural respondents to the Google survey.

Respondents were mostly unhappy with coverage of the local economy, Todd writes. Nearly every focus group said jobs and the local economy were the biggest concerns. "Yet very little — just 8 percent — of the news coverage we analyzed focused primarily on the economy ." There was a discrepancy between coverage and perceived coverage. Respondents said they wanted more education coverage, which analysis showed to be the second most covered topic, after crime.

Many people complained that news coverage is too negative, Todd writes. In some areas, such as Española, N.M. respondents "complained bitterly about what they saw as the local paper’s relentlessly negative slant on news — but nearly all admitted they still read it religiously." Española is home to the Rio Grande Sun, whose owners won last year's Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism, given by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.

"People said they want more rigorous reporting that exposes the context of complex issues, and more stories about how their communities and others are responding to problems, in addition to spotlighting the problems themselves," Todd writes. One Whitefish, Mont. respondent said, “If there’s one thing that’s missing, it’s the in-depth reporting or the enterprise-type reporting that goes beyond…what was stated at last night’s council meeting or what we send out in a press release, and tries to get to the root about the issue and have impact on it." A respondent in Anaconda, Mont. said, “I get to the bottom of an article and I say, ‘Where’s the rest?’”

Oil and gas boom helps most local governments but some very rural areas struggle to keep up

The oil and gas boom has helped most local governments in the U.S., but some in very rural areas "have struggled to keep pace with rapid industry growth," says a news release about research from Duke University.

"The shale revolution has created a variety of opportunities and challenges for local governments," said Richard Newell, a professor of energy and environmental economics. His team traveled to 21 oil- and gas-producing regions in 16 states to interview more than 200 local officials and look at government finances.

While oil and gas activity generated local property taxes, state severance and sales taxes and other revenues, "industry truck traffic can cause substantial damage to local roads, and population growth can strain government services such as police, fire and emergency services," the release says. "In regions experiencing the most rapid growth (such as parts of North Dakota, Texas and Colorado), city governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars upgrading water and wastewater infrastructure to serve their growing populations."

The recent downturn in gas and oil prices "can create substantial financial challenges for regions where the oil and gas industry is a central part of the economy. In Alaska and North Dakota, for example, a prolonged slump in oil prices could lead to longer-term fiscal challenges for state and local governments." Newell's associate, Daniel Raimi, said, "Looking forward, local governments that have become heavily dependent on the oil and gas industry may look to diversify their economies."

The study is part of a three-year Shale Public Finance project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The reports were released at a May 18 workshop on the local impacts of oil and gas development. To see a webcast of the workshop go to www.rff.org/live. For more on the project, including previous reports and an interactive map of findings, see http://energy.duke.edu/shalepublicfinance.