Oklahoma publisher who caught officials in racist, violent talk is losing his top reporter: son who took on the sheriff

The reporter who some officials of a rural Oklahoma county would like to kill, according to his newspaper's surreptitious recording of their discussion at a county commission meeting, is leaving his family's newspaper, citing threats and stress, Paige Wiliams reports for The New Yorker.

Chris Willingham, photographed through the paper's
window. (Photos: Joseph Rushmore for The New Yorker)

Chris Willingham is the son of Bruce and Gwen Willingham, who own the McCurtain Gazette in Idabel, Okla. The paper has a history of taking on McCurtain County officials, and Chris did a series of stories about irregularties in the office of Sheriff Kevin Clardy. One said 53 crime reports were missing, including “a shooting, a rape, an elementary school teacher being unknowingly given marijuana cookies by a student and a deputy allegedly shooting out the tires” of a car. The headline: “Sheriff regularly breaking law now.” 

Sheriff's Capt. Alicia Manning "was investigating several suspected pedophiles," Williams reports. "Manning told a TV news station that 'possibly other people in the community' who were in a 'position of power' were involved . . . and referred to Chris as 'one of them.' Without citing evidence, she accused him of trading marijuana for videos of children. Chris, stunned, suspected that Manning was just looking for an excuse to confiscate his phone. But when he started to lose music students, and his kids’ friends stopped coming over, he feared that rumors were spreading in the community. . . . He developed such severe anxiety and depression that he rarely went out; he gave his firearms to a relative in case he felt tempted to harm himself."

Chris and his wife Angie had "suppressed the occasional urge to leave the Gazette, knowing that they would be hard to replace," Williams writes, but now it was clearly an option. On March 6, he sued Manning and Clardy in federal court for “slander and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” They denied the allegations, and Manning's response said that whatever distress Chris suffered was within the limits of what “a reasonable person could be expected to endure.”

"On the day that Chris filed his lawsuit, the McCurtain County Board of Commissioners held its regular Monday meeting . . . Bruce, who has covered McCurtain’s commissioners for more than 40 years, suspected the board of discussing business not listed on the agenda—a potential misdemeanor—and decided to try to catch them doing it. . . . As they neared the end of the listed agenda, Bruce slipped a recording device disguised as a pen into a cup holder at the center of the conference table." When the room was vacated left hours later, "He went back inside, pretended to review some old paperwork, and retrieved the recording device."

In the three-and-a-half-hour recording, other officials come in, startig with Clardy and Undersheriff Larry Hendrix. Commission Chair Mark Jennings said the 2024 race for sheriff would have several candidates who “don’t have a goddamn clue what they’re getting into, not in this day and age.” Formerly, he said, the sheriff could “take a damn Black guy and whup their ass and throw ’em in the cell. . . . Take ’em down there on Mud Creek and hang ’em up with a damn rope. But you can’t do that anymore. They got more rights than we got.”

Manning came in and "continually steered the conversation to the Gazette," Williams reports. She "talked about the possibility of bumping into Chris Willingham in town: 'I’m not worried about what he’s gonna do to me, I’m worried about what I might do to him.' A couple of minutes later, Jennings said, 'I know where two big deep holes are here, if you ever need them.' 'I’ve got an excavator,' the sheriff said. "Well, these are already pre-dug,' Jennings said. He went on, "I’ve known two or three hit men. They’re very quiet guys."

Editor-Publisher Bruce Willingham in his "clutterbucket of an office"

Williams writes, "Bruce took the tape to the Idabel Police Department. Mark Matloff, the district attorney, sent it to state officials in Oklahoma City, who began an investigation." On April 15, the Gazette reported the conversation under the headline, “County officials discuss killing, burying Gazette reporters.” The next day, Gov. Kevin Stitt demanded that Clardy, Manning, Hendrix and Jennings resign; only Jennings did. The sheriff’s department said the recordign was illegal and “altered.” Chris Willingham told Williams that he reduced the background noise in the audio file before his father took it to the police. Oklahoma Press Association Executive Director Mark Thomas said two of the three commissioners were present and had no expectation of privacy.

"People wanted to hear the recording, not just read about it, but the Gazette had no website," Williams reports. "The Willinghams published an oversized QR code on the front page of the April 20 issue, linking to a Dropbox folder that contained the audio and Angie’s best attempt at a transcript. They eventually put Chris’s articles online. In a rare move, the 17-member board of the Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association voted unanimously to suspend the memberships of Clardy, Manning, and Hendrix. . . . [Idabel Mayor Craig] Young was among those who hoped that Gentner Drummond, the attorney general, would depose the sheriff 'so we can start to recover.' But on June 30, Drummond ended his investigation," saying that the conversation was “inflammatory” and “offensive,” but not criminal. But Chris's latest story reports that Manning is under FBI investigation.

Williams ends her story this way: "Bruce and Gwen worried that the ongoing stress would drive Chris and Angie away from the Gazette — and from McCurtain County. Sure enough, they’re moving to Tulsa. Angie told me, 'We’re 40 years old. We’ve been doing this half our lives. At some point, we need to think of our own happiness, and our family’s welfare.' Bruce protested, but he couldn’t much blame them."

McCurtain County (Wikipedia map)

Williams' story has some observations about hard-nosed rural newspapering: "Bruce Willingham once wrote, 'We are aggressive about protecting the public’s access to records and meetings, because we have found that if we don’t insist on both, often no one else will.' . . . The Gazette exposed a county treasurer who allowed elected officials to avoid penalties for paying their property taxes late, and a utilities company that gouged poor customers while lavishing its executives with gifts. 'To most people, it’s Mickey Mouse stuff,' Willingham told me. 'But the problem is, if you let them get away with it, it gets worse and worse and worse.'

"In a small town, a dogged reporter is inevitably an unpopular one. It isn’t easy to write about an old friend’s felony drug charge, knowing that you’re going to see him at church. When Chris was a teenager, his father twice put him in the paper, for the misdemeanors of stealing beer, with buddies, at a grocery store where one of them worked, and parking illegally—probably with those same buddies, definitely with beer—on a back-road bridge, over a good fishing hole.

"Among law-enforcement sources, 'Chris was respected because he always asked questions about how the system works, about proper procedure,' an officer said. Certain cops admired his willingness to pursue uncomfortable truths even if those truths involved one of their own." Another unnamed officer told her. "If I was to do something wrong—on purpose, on accident—Chris Willingham one hundred per cent would write my butt in the paper, on the front page, in bold letters."

And one last revelation: Bruce and Gwen Willingham "rent several cabins to vacationers in Hochatown . . . a resort area known as the Hamptons of Dallas-Fort Worth," three hours away. Chris told her, “If we didn’t have tourism to fall back on, we couldn’t run the newspaper. The newspaper loses money.”

Nine states halt Medicaid 'procedural' terminations; other states have plans to address flaws in the process

Photo by Jon Tyson, Unsplashed

The end of the pandemic meant the resumption of eligibility verification for Medicaid, which has proved a difficult transition for some, and many beneficiaries are losing coverage, mainly because they haven't responded to recertification efforts.

Under pressure from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, nine states have "agreed to pause procedural terminations as they address potential violations of Medicaid renewal requirements," reports Dorothy Mills-Gregg of Inside CMS. And 35 states have approved mitigation plans "that must address various issues, particularly with renewal forms and with confirming Medicaid eligibility ex parte, to comply with federal renewal requirements." The states are Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, West Virginia and Wyoming.

"Nearly 20 states did not let their beneficiaries renew using all modalities -- phone, mail, in-person or online -- and eight states requested more information on their requests for renewal than is needed to determine eligibility," Mills-Greg writes. "To fix these potential violations. . . some states have agreed to provide simplified forms, add instructions explaining what information is required or pre-populate renewal forms. . . . Plans can also include extending call center hours, letting individuals or organizations help beneficiaries submit renewals."

Mills-Greg reports that 26 states "entered a mitigation plan in part because they were not conducting renewals ex parte, which is where a beneficiary's eligibility is confirmed administratively with third-party data, like participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Experts say renewing coverage via ex parte reduces paperwork, potentially saving enrollees from losing Medicaid coverage because of a missing form or they didn't return a renewal request on time."

California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Tennessee had "no identified violations of federal renewal requirements," Mills-Greg reports.

A state's political identity does not determine compliance with federal Medicaid requirements or the need for a mitigation plan. Arielle Kane, Families USA director of Medicaid initiatives, told Mills-Gregg: "It's not a political problem; it's a problem with the enrollment systems; it's a problem with our infrastructure; it's a problem with, you know, how we track people -- all of these things -- then I think it almost maybe will de-stigmatize it a little bit and help us get to solutions."

A new kind of cafe and a new fellowship offer rural help at the intersection of courts and recovery

A group discussion (Shutterstock photo)

Gatherings at cafes aren't new, or are they? Meet the Recovery Cafe and its intersecting partner, The Reaching Rural Initiative. Recovery Cafes offer "no-cost get-togethers in which people can have a meal with a small group of individuals who are in recovery from something, said Mike Rentfro, a fellow at The Reaching Rural Initiative, which is working at the intersection of substance use and those engaged with the justice system," reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder. The new approach has been catching on in rural areas that often have fewer gathering spaces and a cultural stigma that discourages asking for help.

The Recovery Cafe offers a circle of recovery. Rentfro told Eaton: "They come in, they connect, they have to do what we call an hour of give back time. So they actually volunteer at the cafe to maybe wash dishes after the meal or even help prepare the meal. And they have to participate in one recovery circle a week. So all that recovery circle is a support group for whatever you've identified as what's keeping you from being your truest self."

Jessica Perusse from Camden, New York, is planning a Recovery Cafe. Eaton reports, "Perusse learned about Recovery Cafes and thought it would be a less adversarial role. . . . She said that over recent years, Camden has been known for its high levels of child protective cases and has been a 'hot spot' in Oneida County for opioid overdoses, which has led to grandparents parenting young children."

The town's resources are limited, and seeking help is discouraged. Perusse told Eaton: "There is a huge amount of stigma about receiving any type of support services including mental health/addiction treatment, medical care as well as food resources and financial supports . . . The Camden Life Center provides outreach to the five town courts within the coverage area. . . . Being present in court is one of the few opportunities where people gather and may be in a place [to] consider treatment." The Camden Life Center could house a Recovery Cafe and fill a dramatic gap for residents who receive court recovery orders or are self-referred.

"Both Rentfro and Perusse are among the nearly 70 fellows at The Reaching Rural Initiative, which started in December 2022," Eaton reports. "The Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the State Justice Institute co-sponsor the year-long fellowship. Tara Kunkel, whose organization, Rulo Strategies, helps lead the fellows, told Eaton: "It's a true marriage of public health and public safety. So all the projects are working at the intersection of substance use, and people who are engaged in some way in the justice system. . . . [For the fellows] Sometimes, what they just need is someone to cheerlead them and encourage them to get through doing the actual work on their project."

The Reaching Rural Initiative plans on another cohort. Kunkel told The Rural Blog, "We have not officially released the application, but anyone interested can sign up to receive a copy of the application once it is released by clicking this link."

Some of the most common prescription drugs face extinction; 'repatriating' our drug supply' offers one solution

Photo by Alexander Grey, Unsplash

Imbalanced profits between brand-name and generic drugs is one cause of Americans' prescription drug woes, reports Geoffrey Joyce for The Conversation, a journalistic platform for academics. "Patients and their providers increasingly face limited or nonexistent supplies of drugs, many of which treat essential conditions such as cancer, heart disease and bacterial infections. The American Society of Health System Pharmacists now lists over 300 active shortages, primarily of decades-old generic drugs no longer protected by patents. . . . I believe the drug shortage problem illustrates a major shortcoming of capitalism. While costly brand-name drugs often yield high profits to manufacturers, there's relatively little money to be made in supplying the market with low-cost generics, no matter how vital they may be to patients' health."

The hole in the generic-drug supply chain can have a dramatic impact on rural pharmacies that often make survival profits off their reimbursement. “Filling a generic prescription, from a financial standpoint, is like pulling the slots at a casino,” Ben Jolley, an independent pharmacist in Salt Lake City, told Markian Hawryluk of KFF Health News. “Sometimes you lose a quarter, sometimes you lose a buck, and sometimes you make $500. But you have to have those prescriptions that you make $500 on to make up for the losses on the rest of your meds.”

To shore up generic drug production, their profits would need to dramatically increase. Joyce explains, "Prices of brand drugs in the U.S. are among the highest in the developed world, while generic drug prices are among the lowest. [Brand-name] patents allow the drugmakers to cover the costs. . . and earn a profit without the threat of competition from a rival making an identical product. . . . Once the drug becomes generic any company can manufacture it. . . . Profits are determined by their ability to manufacture the drug at the lowest marginal cost. This often results in low-profit margins. . . . One of the consequences of generics' meager margins is that drug companies outsource production to lower-cost countries. As of mid-2019, 72% of the manufacturing facilities making active ingredients for drugs sold in the U.S. were located overseas, with India and China alone making up nearly half of that."

A generic drug's paltry profits also mean its quality can suffer, which can be dangerous. "A company that sells a new, expensive, branded drug has a strong profit motive to keep quality and production high. That's often not the case for generic drug manufacturers, and this can result in shortages," Joyce reports. "In 2013, the Department of Justice fined the U.S. subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's largest generic drug manufacturer, $500 million after it pleaded guilty to civil and criminal charges related to drug safety and falsifying safety data. In response, the Food and Drug Administration banned products made at four of the company's manufacturing facilities in India from entering the U.S., including generic versions of gabapentin, which treats epilepsy and nerve pain, and the antibiotic ciprofloxacin."

What are the options? "One option is to simply find ways to produce more generic drugs in the U.S.," Joyce adds. "California passed a law in 2020 to do just that by allowing the state to contract with domestic manufacturers to produce its own generic prescription drugs. In March 2023, California selected a Utah company to begin producing low-cost insulin for California patients. . . . Whether this approach is feasible on a broader scale is uncertain, but, in my view, it's a good first attempt to repatriate America's drug supply."

'Radically Rural' N.H. summit including journalism sessions announces panels and new, affordable pricing scheme

Radically Rural, the two-day national summit that features sessions on community journalism, is offering a big program and a new pricing scheme that allows journalists to determine their admission price, based on their ability to afford attendance, for as little as no charge up to the full price of $175. There are a limited number of free tickets to the event Sept. 27-28 in Keene, N.H.

With a theme of “How did they do that?” two journalism sessions will focus on news organizations that have built sustainability in various ways, including philanthropy, custom publishing, digital readership and membership. A third will look at some great journalism produced by rural newsrooms.

Terrence Williams

“We want to make this is as affordable as possible for journalists to attend, particularly those stressed by the challenging revenue markets facing their organizations and the cost of travel,” said organizer Terrence L. Williams, senior adviser for audience and community development for The Keene Sentinel. The locally owned daily newspaper partners with the local Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship for Radically Rural, which features solutions-based sessions for small communities on seven tracks: community journalism, land use, downtowns, health care, entrepreneurship, arts and culture, and clean energy. Here's the community journalism program:

Sept. 27, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: Building sustainability. The demise of local journalism in rural America has received national attention, but many small news organizations are thriving. Panelists: Joey Young, majority owner, Kansas Publishing Ventures; Chris Baker, publisher, Taos News; and Tristan Scott, managing editor, The Flathead Beacon, Kalispell, Mont. Moderator: Terry Williams.

Sept. 27, 12:30-1:30 p.m.: The Fourth Estate. Jeremiah Ariaz, an art professor at Louisiana State University, spent months in Kansas documenting in photography the state of more than 100 rural newspapers. In a moving, nostalgic presentation, he presents the fears and hopes for democracy in communities left without a paper or clinging to what they have. Lunch provided.

Sept. 27, 2-3:30 p.m.: Generating audience revenue. Successful rural news organizations, for-profit and not, are building revenue through fundraising, membership and paid readership. Panelists: Arik Ligeti, director of audience, The Narwhal, online nonprofit, Victoria, B.C.; Christiaan Mader, founder/editor, The Current, Lafayette, La. Moderator: Shay Totten, newsroom success manager, American Press Institute.

Thursday, Sept. 28, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Groundbreaking journalism. A deep dive into how three newsrooms reported powerful stories that have deeply impacted the rural communities they cover. Panelists: Victoria Bouloubasis, journalist and filmmaker, Durham, N.C.; Adam Ganucheau, editor-in-chief, Mississippi Today; Samantha Hogan, investigative reporter, The Maine Monitor. Moderator: Jack Rooney, managing editor, audience development, The Keene Sentinel.

To register to attend or learn more about the programming, go to www.radicallyrural.org

Right-to-repair advocates and foes get U.S. House hearing

Aaron Perzanowski, a law professor from the University of Michigan,
speaks at the hearing. (House video screenshot via Lancaster Farming)

Both sides of the right-to-repair debate voiced their arguments during a hearing by a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, reports Philip Gruber of Lancaster Farming. 

Farmers and consumers who need to fix their equipment have met a myriad of obstacles. "Manufacturers frustrate or limit third-party repair, steering business to themselves while driving up customer costs, speakers said," Gruber writes. "Repair concerns go beyond agriculture. . . including cars, dishwashers, electric wheelchairs and smartphones. Advocates want Congress to pass legislation enshrining a right to repair."

Manufacturers argued that releasing needed repair data is a cybersecurity and safety concern. Devlin Hartline, a legal fellow at the Hudson Institute, "argued that right-to-repair proposals would weaken manufacturers' intellectual-property rights, such as the right to exclude competition for patented products." Brenna Goth of Bloomberg Law reports, "Opponents, from John Deere equipment dealers to groups representing Samsung and Apple, have said authorized repair programs benefit consumer safety." Manufacturers don't openly address the revenue stream that consumer right-to-repair laws could erase from their books.

Gruber reports, "American courts have supported owners' ability to repair their belongings since before the Civil War, and the Copyright Office has repeatedly said that diagnosis, repair and maintenance don't infringe on copyright protections, Aaron Perzanowski, a University of Michigan law professor told the committee. . . . . Paul Roberts, founder of Secure Repairs, a group of cybersecurity and IT professionals who support the right to repair, added that there's no evidence that schematics, service manuals, diagnostic software and replacement parts increase a machine's vulnerability to cyberattacks." Roberts said: "A diagnostic routine that identifies a failed component or reveals the operating temperature of a device doesn't provide access to the kinds of sensitive data that hackers are interested in."

Despite manufacturers' lobbying, the movement has gained traction. "Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York have passed right-to-repair laws of varying scope. Colorado's applies specifically to tractors," Goth reports. "Proposals in at least 23 states would require electronics companies like Apple or other manufacturers to make reasonably available the tools, parts, and information needed for people to fix the products themselves or through an independent repair shop."

This year, the American Farm Bureau Federation signed memoranda of understanding with Agco, Claas, CNH Industrial Brands, John Deere and Kubota, "manufacturers that represent three-quarters of the domestic farm-machinery market," Gruber notes. "The agreements establish farmers' and independent repair shops' access to manuals and tools for diagnostics and repair. . . . Such agreements can be helpful if they cover a large share of the market and prevent manufacturers from quitting whenever they want. Not all agreements meet those targets, Perzanowski said." He told Gruber: "Oftentimes, frankly, I think they're designed to generate good PR and to confuse arguments around the need for legislation, so I think we have to look at them with some skepticism."

AppHarvest, startup with huge greenhouses for fruits and vegetables in Appalachian foothills, files for bankruptcy

An AppHarvest greenhouse amid Kentucky's knobs (CBS News image)

AppHarvest, a nationally hailed startup that has acres-sized greenhouses to grow fruits and vegetables in Kentucky's Appalachian foothills, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. 

"The indoor produce grower made a dozen different filings in the federal bankruptcy court for the Southern District of Texas on Sunday," reports Rick Childress of the Lexington Herald-Leader. "The filings come after an eventful few months for the cash-strapped company. Last month, a creditor demanding payment opened a foreclosure lawsuit against the company’s Richmond facility. Nearly two weeks ago, the owner of AppHarvest’s Berea farm announced that it wanted to terminate the company’s lease there."

AppHarvest said Monday that it wants to restructure itself while and resolve those issues. Equilibrium, the company that foreclosed and "demanded the immediate repayment of over $60 million in debt, will provide the cash necessary to help AppHarvest continue operations at its farms in Richmond, Somerset and Morehead," Childress reports. That extra money, nearly $30 million, is subject to court approval. So is a proposed deal with its distribution partner, Mastronardi Produce, which holds title to the Berea farm and served notice weeks ago that it intended to terminate AppHarvest’s lease. Now, "AppHarvest will turn the farm over to Mastronardi in exchange for about $3.75 million and additional funding and support for its restructuring plan," Childress reports.

AppHarvest CEO Tony Martin, who recently replaced founder Jonathan Webb, said the bankruptcy route will protect the company from creditors while it implements a new strategic plan, "which has shown strong progress toward operational efficiencies resulting in higher sales, cost savings and product quality." Childress notes, "AppHarvest’s stock price fell to $0.12 following the announcement of the bankruptcy filing Monday morning, falling from the $0.34 the company closed at Friday. The price has sat below $1 since February. In April, the company received noticed from Nasdaq that it would be delisted from the stock exchange if the stock price’s did not close above $1 for 10 consecutive days before October 16, public filings show."

In 'Children of Poverty' series, Malheur Enterprise shows how a rural weekly can plumb a big issue, with student help

A mother checks stock at a food pantry in Adrian, Oregon, population 177. A food bank
closed in May because it lost its space. (Malheur Enterprise photo by Andie Kalinowski)

With the help of journalism students, a weekly newspaper in rural eastern Oregon has told the story of local children who live in poverty. The Malheur Enterprise got help from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California because "We wanted the community to understand what it means when Malheur County is ranked as having among the worst child poverty rates in Oregon. That ranking has been in place for years," Editor-Publisher Les Zaitz writes.

Two USC professors had worked up a course on rural reporting, and reached out to the Enterprise, which is widely known as a paper that punches above its weight -- thanks to Zaitz, who has been an investigative reporter and editor in Oregon for 50 years. He gave the professors and the five students they selected a detailed memo outling key questions that needed answering. They reported first from Los Angeles, reaching out to state agencies and experts at Oregon universities, then made a two-week reporting trip to Malheur County, Zaitz writes.

"I had identified key sources for them among government agencies, nonprofit agencies and schools across Malheur County. I reached out ahead of time to key leaders to alert them to expect contact and ask their help. Without fail, those leaders cooperated, proving invaluable," with help such as ride-alongs with police. . . . The team conducted more than 70 interviews. Most were recorded. Some were filmed, resulting in powerful videos," which are on the paper's website.

The students are Christina Chkarboul, Andie Kalinowski, Shane Dimapanet, Suejin Lim and Venice Tang. The professors are Rebecca Haggerty, associate director of undergraduate journalism, and Judy Muller, professor emerita of journalism, former ABC correspondent and author of Emus Loose in Egnar, a book about courageous rural journalists. Here are the stories:

• Malheur’s kids in peril as parents, programs struggle with economic, social challenges
• Children tucked into RVs, living with friends as Malheur County housing remains inadequate
• Children in Malheur County going hungry as families struggle with income, issues
• In Malheur County, school workers step in to care for children short of food, clothing
• Kids face stress, mental health issues – but help is scarce

Les Zaitz reflects on 50 years in Oregon journalism, much of it doing investigative work at rural newspapers

Editor-Publisher Les Zaitz talked with University of Southern California journalism students working on a child-poverty reporting project for the Malheur Enterprise in eastern Oregon. (Photo by George Lewis for the Malheur Enterprise) 

Les Zaitz is a legend in American journalism, and he's still building his legacy and telling his story. He's had an unusual career, with two stints as a top investigative reporter at The Oregonian, and two stints as the editor and publisher of rural weekly newspapers. He reflects on that past, and the future, in a piece for his current paper, the Malheur Enterprise in eastern Oregon.

At the Oregonian, "I had no ambition for anything other than to develop powerful stories about powerful people and institutions," Zaitz writes. "But along with those skills came a deepening appreciation for fairness, for ethical behavior. When I turned to community journalism with the acquisition of the Keizertimes in 1987, those lessons were potent. I still recall being too zealous to tell about a mayor parking his boat for free at city hall’s secure lot. The story was accurate, but it wasn’t entirely fair. The breathless account turned a minor infraction into a front-page scandal. Temperance in investigative reporting is critical. Good journalists have to question every fact. They have to constantly ask themselves: Is this story fair? Is the wording fair? That doesn’t mean diluting the facts. That means giving the facts and letting readers decide just how foul the offense is."

Zaitz returned to the Portland daily, and quit in 2016, thinking he was going to retire, "But duty to the profession, to Oregon, kept tugging at me," he writes. His family bought the Enterprise, and then he "was recruited to start up the digital news operation, Salem Reporter. And in 2021 I took the lead to found the Oregon Capital Chronicle," a States Newsroom operation.

Why all that? "I became increasingly alarmed at the demise of news organizations, the rise of partisan news sites and the erosion of American trust in the press, in the truth. . . . In every speech I give these days, whether to Rotary or League of Women Voters, I acknowledge that the media share the fault. For too many years, collectively we have exuded an arrogance that readers and viewers sensed – and then rejected. We have been too slow to admit our errors, to be open with how we do our work. We left you in the dark."

Zaitz concludes, "Experiences in Vale and in Salem impressed on me key truths. First, citizens remain hungry for local information they can trust. Journalists must deliver more. Second, citizens are counting on the press to serve as watchdogs. Sitting in a school board meeting, performing stenography, does not illuminate what readers need to see. News organizations need to replace routine reporting with probing coverage. . . . Finally, I have faith in you and other Oregonians. We may seem to be in a rough patch politically and socially at the moment. But the power of the truth, of the facts, has time after time in our country’s history won out over hyperbole and manipulation. In the press, we have work to do to help get us there. My optimism that we can is what keeps me going."

Ky. congressman who wants a prison tries to do a Manchin: Use an appropriations bill to override the other branches

The reclained strip mine and proposed prison site (Photo from NoNewLetcherPrison via Kentucky Lantern)

Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky's 5th District, the longest-serving member of the House, a member of the Appropriations Committee and its former chair, has wanted the federal government to build a maximum-secutity prison in Letcher County since 2006. The county is divided about the idea, and the Bureau of Prisons has soured on it. So Rogers put language in the his latest approproations bill that would require the Justice Department to issue an environmental impact statement and final decision approving the prison within 30 days of the bill becoming law, and says the agencies' decisions “shall not be subject to judicial review.”

Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky.

Rogers is following a tactic employed by another longtime Appalachian politician, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who bargained for and won a provision in the latest major funding bill to clear the administrative and judicial barriers to the Mountain Valley Pipeline in his state and Virginia. But Rogers' gambit faces many more obstacles.

Rogers' bill for spending by the Justice Department and other agencies "will need to clear several hurdles before it could become law," Jamie Lucke reports for the Kentucky Lantern. "The House’s spending bills are likely to change significantly later this year," when its bill and the Senate's must be reconciled. "The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 28-1 earlier this month to approve its version of the Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill, which does not include any provision mentioning the Letcher prison."

Rogers "touts the prison as a source of employment and economic development in a poor region that has lost thousands of coal-industry jobs. The 16-member Letcher County Planning Commission has long sought a prison," Lucke reports. "A coalition of opponents — local and national — question the potential economic benefits. They say a proliferation of prisons in Central Appalachia in recent decades has done little to improve the economy, while supporting mass incarceration and putting prisoners and their families at great distances from each other."

Letcher County (Wikipedia map)

Two citizens' groups said this week that more public input is needed. “People in Letcher County deserve to have a say in this because we vote, we pay taxes, we live here and we love this place,” said Dr. Artie Anne Bates, a member of Concerned Letcher Countians. “We don’t want Rep. Rogers stuffing something down our throats that we are not in agreement with.” Rogers' office has not replied to the Lantern's or The Rural Blog's requests for comment.

The Bureau of Prisons approved construction of the prison in 2018, but in 2020 "the Trump administration pulled the plug, saying the prison was no longer needed because of a decline in prisoner numbers and that the $505 million set aside for the project would be 'wasteful spending'," Lucke notes. Recently, the Bureau of Prisons changed its plan to a medium-security facility, but "President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget proposal also would cancel funding for the prison."

UPDATE, 3/3/24: Rogers announced that the Bureau of Prisons "is moving forward with the proposed development . . . according to the agency’s new Draft Environmental Impact Statement." The public comment period on the statement and plan runs through April 15. For details, click here.

'Try that in a Small Town' a missed opportunity, small-towner writes; W. Post writer calls it 'a fantasy of violent retribution'

Jason Aldean in 'Try That in a Small Town' (YouTube)

Either from their lyrics, curious catchiness or infectious beat, some songs and accompanying videos can bring people together. Jason Aldean's latest song 'Try That in a Small Town" isn't that sort of tune, writes Skylar Baker-Jordan in an opinion piece for The Daily Yonder.

"Jason Aldean broke onto the country scene in 2005 with his top 10 hit 'Hicktown.' Subsequent songs, such as 'Amarillo Sky' (about the plight of farmers) and 'Flyover States' (an ode to the heartland) cemented his reputation as a preeminent troubadour for rural America," Bakr-Jordan writes. "So how did his latest offering, 'Try That in a Small Town,' get it so wrong?"

The song dropped quietly enough in May. The video followed on July 14. "The backlash was swift and severe, with Country Music Television pulling the video mere days after it debuted. . . . Lyrics like 'cuss out a cop, spit in his face/stomp on the flag and light it up, Yeah, ya think you're tough,' Aldean and the songwriters position big cities as crime-ridden hellholes where people 'Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store.' In a small town, though, you can 'see how far ya make it down the road' because 'round here, we take care of our own.'" (The gun angle is explored here.)

Taking care of neighbors is great, but the lyric implies that rural areas are more kind, Baker-Jordan writes: "By pitting urban versus rural, he is not so much extolling the values he grew up with as he is exacerbating the divide already present in our nation. Rather than acknowledging that crime – which happens in rural communities too – is the problem, he blames cities." (Republican presidential candidates are playing the song at events, NBC News reports.)

The video's major location is "a courthouse where an infamous lynching occurred in 1927," but "the production company behind the video denies this was intentional," Baker-Jordan reports. But it "only adds to the problematic nature of the song," which "excludes people of color. . . . Black people live in small towns. Gay people live in small towns. Progressives live in small towns. They have never been the sole purview of conservative white men like Aldean." UPDATE, July 25: Black Lives Matter images in the video have been removed.

Columnist Paul Waldman of The Washington Post calls the video "a fantasy of violent retribution against outsiders — those who would bring the supposed lawlessness of the city to the small town. . . . Were it not for Aldean’s recent political feuds with other artists and the provocation in the video, the song might have simply been cast on the gigantic pile of country songs about small towns. There might be no theme more ubiquitous in the genre: what makes rural life worthwhile, what people in rural areas enjoy and how they live their lives. Some of this music is earnest — even sentimental — about finding pride and meaning in the place where you come from."

That's the sort of song Baker-Jordan wishes Aldean would write. She calls the song "a missed opportunity. . . . Aldean could have produced an anthem that extolled the values of neighborliness and collectivism, which I would agree our nation needs to return to. . . . [Instead] Aldean recorded an anthem dripping with disdain for half the country and filmed a music video at a site of a racist hate crime. . . . I don’t come away from that song feeling like he cares about me. I come away from it feeling like he’s attacking me. And I’m from a small town, too."

News-media roundup: Local journalism-funding bill filed; source-protection bill moving; another paper goes nonprofit

A new, bipartisan bill with tax credits for local journalism was introduced in the U.S. House Thursday. H.R. 4756 would give payroll tax credits to news media publishers who employ fewer than 750 people and create original content that serves the needs of a regional or local community. The credit could be as much as $25,000 per journalist in the first year and up to $15,000 in the following four years. Local news outlets' small-business advertisers would get credits of up to $5,000 in the first year and up to $2,500 in the subsequent four years if they have fewer than 50 employees.

Rep. Claudia Tenney of upstate

New York, who has been in the

newspaper business, is the main

Republican sponsor of the bill.

The bill is "a conceptual and political breakthrough," Steven Waldman, chair of the Rebuild Local News Coalition, writes for Editor & Publisher. "It makes sense because saving local news should not be about saving journalism jobs per se. It should be about strengthening communities. Politically, if we are to succeed, we need to expand our group of friends beyond other journalism trade groups. A similar bill proposed by Republicans in Wisconsin drew endorsements from the associations representing restaurants, taverns, convenience stores, banks and dentists. . . . We know that passing legislation in this Congress will be a long shot. But this creates the foundation for passage and, in the shorter run, can provide a blueprint for bills in state legislatures."

The legislation is called the Community News and Small Business Support Act and has a long list of endorsers, including the National Newspaper Association and seeveral state press associations. The endorsers include Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues (publisher of The Rural Blog), which is on the steering committee of the coalition. He says, "This bill is one answer to the question we continue to ask: How can rural communities sustain journalism that supports democracy?"  UPDATE, July 24: The bill's Democratic sponsor, Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state, discusses it with Brier Dudley, free-press editor of The Seattle Times.

SOURCE PROTECTION: A bill to protect journalists from revealing their sources amid pressure from the federal government cleared the House Judiciary Committee in a unanimous vote Wendnesday, "an unusual show of bipartisanship on a committee often at loggerheads," reports Tim Johnson of Deadline. "The Protect Reporters from Exploitive State Spying Act, or PRESS Act, is a response to instances of law enforcement agencies secretly seeking court orders emails and phone records from reporters in an effort to determine their sources. Lawmakers noted that such instances took place during the Trump and Obama administrations. . . . The bill also restricts efforts to subpoena a journalist’s information from a third party — like phone and internet providers — and gives reporters get an opportunity to challenge such subpoenas in court." There's a companion bill in the Senate.

NONPROFIT AND FREE: The family that owns The Times-Independent of Moab, Utah, is donating the paper to The Salt Lake Tribune, which has been a community-owned nonprofit since 2019. It's one of two weeklies in Moab, with the 10-year-old Moab Sun News, and that's probably why the Trubune is trying a new business model: free circulation to every address in the Zip code and free access online. “That greatly increases the advertising value of the paper,” Publisher Zane Taylor said in an interview. “It’s just a different business model for the future.” In a letter to readers in Thursday's edition, Taylor said the move was “important for The Times-Independent to evolve so it remains essential to all Moabites.” The weekly's local reporters and editors will remain in place, the Tribune said. Sarah Scire has a report for Nieman Lab.

CAPITOL NEWS: Capitol News Illinois, a nonprofit newsroom, is adding news veterans Jennifer Fuller as broadcast director, to expand its offerings to stations, and Molly Parker as part of the investigative team. Parker wiorked with CNI’s Beth Hundsdorfer on the award-winning “Culture of Cruelty” series about patient abuse at a state mental-health center in southern Illinois.

A SALE: HD Media of Huntington, W.Va., which owns the newspapers there, in Charleston and other West Virginia communities, has bought its third weekly in Virginia, The Southwest Times in Pulaski. It bought the Virginia Mountaineer in Grundy and the Lebanon News in the last year. 

In new 'Southern Storytellers' series, N.C. author David Joy bemoans changes in his rural county; locals can't afford it

Author David Joy shares thoughts about his changing home. (PBS image)

Tracing a Southern county's history and landscape is one thing, "but drawing a singular image of our people, that's when things get difficult, or rather impossible," reflects David Joy in PBS's new "Southern Storytellers"series, which celebrates Southern identity with contemporary creators of literature, music, film, and TV.

In Western North Carolina, Joy takes viewers into backwoods hemmed with raspberry bushes laden with fruit and a cool spring for trout fishing. He holds up a small trout and says it's genetically different than all other brook trout. An Appalachian native, you might say.

But to Joy, the area's way of life is threatened. "Jackson County, North Carolina, is not the coalfields of Kentucky or West Virginia; coal isn't destroying our mountain tops; ours are threatened by unrestricted land development," he says. "There are millionaires hitting golf balls on Tom Fazio-designed golf courses just over the ridgeline from people surviving on mayonnaise sandwiches."

Against a backdrop of cedared woods, Joy and best friend Raymond head out to hunt deer and mull the the price of change. Raymond tells Joy he is not sure the area can reach beyond its current culture and get back to where it was. Raymond tells Joy, "I don't know if there's gonna be enough young people left to continue on. . . . Young people leave here to have a better lifestyle or to be able to afford a house. . . . All the local people will be displaced by going to fill a job, or get priced out because they can't afford to be able to stay here, and I think it's an inevitability. This culture, this place, will be gone." Joy nods, saying, "It's hard for other people to understand . . . the finality of that, that displacement." 

Sitting on his back steps surrounded by spring blooms, Joy reads a piece from his novel When These Mountains Burn: "When the paper mill shut down and when the old plastic plant at the south end of the county left, the very fabric that once defined the mountains fragmented and was replaced with outsiders who built second and third homes on the ridgeline and drove the property values up so high that what few locals were left couldn't afford to pay the taxes on their land."

Joy credits his Southern upbringing with giving him a place to hang every story. Asked to describe the South, he says, "I think what I want people to recognize about the South is that it's a very, very complex place. . . full of a whole lotta beauty and a whole lot of bad things as well. And I don't want to lose a bit of it."

Finally Friday quick hits: National Ice Cream Month; farm co-ops; Appalachian traditions; farmers' survey; be kind . . .

July is National Ice Cream Month. (Image via AEI)

I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream! Well, maybe we don't yell quite as loud now. "U.S. consumers don't eat ice cream like they used to, reports Sarah Hubbart for Agricultural Economic Insights. "Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, consumption of regular-fat ice cream exceeded 17 pounds per capita. Since the mid-1980s, however, per capita consumption has decreased, reaching a low of 12 pounds in 2018 and again in 2021. . . . Luckily for the dairy industry, the per capita decline in consumption isn’t the only demographic trend in play."

A "life of crime" is usually negative, but not in all cases. "To address massive staffing shortages across its prisons, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is building relationships with high school programs that train students for careers in corrections and law enforcement," reports Anya Slepyan of The Daily Yonder. "The agency is exploring the option of establishing a pipeline for high school students to become employees."

ICA logo

Cooperatives give farmers the power of collaboration. "If you've ever sipped Florida's Natural orange juice, buttered a dinner roll with Land O'Lakes, or spread Welch's grape jelly on a peanut butter sandwich, then you've done business with a farm co-op," reports Tim Burrack for The Scoop. "Co-ops are often invisible to consumers, even as they keep grocery prices in check by letting farmers like me stay economically sustainable. Here in rural Iowa, I work with a co-op that helps me buy crop inputs and bring to market what I grow."

Heat, wildfires, hurricanes, floods or other disasters can stress health systems to the breaking point. This tool kit aims to offer help. Tip sheets and response best practices are organized for health care providers, patients and administrators.

In Athens County, Ohio, traditions are celebrated and some are offered with "hands-on" lessons. "A new project seeks to showcase Athens County folkways in their past and present incarnations,"reports Keri Johnson of The Athens County Independent. "Athens County Living Traditions is a five-part event series that celebrates the folkways — art, music, craftsmanship and more — of the people of Athens County. . . . Living Traditions is funded through the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation — specifically through its Central Appalachia Living Traditions program."

Shutterstock photo

If you would like to promote a better world, consider kindness as one of the simplest routes. It begins with a loop. "Begin each day with the resolution that you will treat others in a kindly. . . . Follow this up with a tangible act of kindness as soon as you can," writes Arthur C. Brooks of The Atlantic. While it's true, no matter how kind we are "legitimate disagreements will still divide us. . . . But the disagreements wouldn’t so commonly become insults and threats, and trolls would have less power."

The Mid-West Farm Report is calling all farmers for a "Match Made in Heaven, Livestock + Crops" survey: "The three-year venture aims to bring livestock back into cropping operations. The goal is to boost soil health and the farm's bottom line. Co-director of the project, Laura Paine, says that they're in their second leg of the project. They're surveying farmers about the opportunities and challenges in integrating livestock into crops. Take the survey here.

Excess deaths, those above the expected numbers, grew in pandemic Year 2 despite vaccines; rural vax rate blamed

Scientists generally believe that the number of deaths attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic has been understated, and they point to what they call "excess deaths," the number of deaths above the number that would have been expected if the pandemic hadn't occurred, based on recent trends. A new study shows that excess deaths in the U.S. increased in the second year of the pandemic even though that is when Covid-19 vaccines became widely available, and that they went up largely because of increases in rural counties, where fewer people were vaccinated.

"In rural counties across the United States—where vaccines were harder to obtain, where vaccine skepticism remained higher, and where access to good health care is often more challenging—excess deaths in year two of the pandemic actually increased, despite the presence of vaccines," Boston University says of the study, done mainly by BU faculty and published in Science Advances. "The study provides the first look at monthly estimates of what the researchers call “excess deaths” for every U.S. county in the pandemic’s first two years."

Andrew Stokes, an assistant professor of global health at BU and corresponding author of the study, pointed to a shortage of rural vaccinations as the main cause. The study reports, "In urban areas, 75% of people aged 5 years and older were vaccinated as of January 2022 compared to only 59% of people aged 5 years and older in rural areas. This urban-rural difference in vaccination rates more than doubled since April 2021." Stokes told the BU public-relations staff, "Inequalities in mortality outcomes in the second year of the pandemic were fundamentally shaped by patterns of vaccine uptake at the community level. . . . There was less vaccination happening in rural areas and that gap between urban and rural areas grew as the second year progressed." The difference rural and urban death rates largely disappeared early this year, The Daily Yonder reported in February.

There were other factors, the study says: "The emergence of partisanship and misinformation further disadvantaged small metropolitan and rural areas during the second year of the pandemic. This partisanship even went as far as deteriorating the quality of surveillance data by affecting the certification of Covid-19 deaths, which were systematically undercounted in rural communities."

The study found that nonmetropolitan counties in the South "had the highest cumulative relative excess mortality by July 2021," with just over 25% estimated excess deaths by February 2022. Large metro areas in the West ranked second, followed by small and medium Southern metros, then large Southern metros. 

The study says county-by-county data are important "because counties are the administrative unit for death investigation, excess mortality estimates have the potential to help identify counties where Covid-19 death rates differ from excess mortality rates and who might benefit from additional training and other resources around cause-of-death certification. These estimates may also be valuable for informing local public health workers, community organizations, and residents of the true impact of the pandemic, thus potentially increasing vaccination and uptake of other protective measures."

Here are county-by-county maps from the study, in chronological order; clicking on each map will produce a slightly larger version. The high-resolution originals can be downloaded here. The study says these are estimates, and are uncertain in small counties.

Grasslands fill up Conservation Reserve Program, which shows crop production and soil conservation can co-exist

Grassland in the program (Natural Resources and Conservation Service photo)

The largest federal program to preserve fragile land, the Conservation Reserve Program, has reached its enrollment limit for the first time in 10 years, reports Chuck Abbott of Successful Farming. "Thanks to surging interest in the Grassland CRP option . . . grasslands will become the largest element in the reserve, with more than 9 million acres enrolled." 

Farm policy expert Carl Zulauf of Ohio State told Abbott: "The new Farm Bill presents a generational opportunity to repurpose CRP." Abbott reports, "Grasslands will be the largest component of CRP, he said." Zach Ducheneaux, administrator of USDA's Farm Service Agency, added: "A carbon-capture CRP initially focused on grasslands may offer more potential to capture carbon than the much-debated, currently unproven carbon markets for the 318 million acres of principal crops in the United States. . . . Grassland CRP clearly demonstrates that conservation priorities and agricultural productivity not only have the capacity to coexist but also complement and enhance one another."

CRP pays landowners "an annual rent in exchange for taking fragile cropland out of production with  'the long-term goal to reestablish valuable land cover to help improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, and reduce loss of wildlife habitat through contracts that run for 10 to 15 years,' said a USDA summary," Abbott notes. It was re-established in 1985, as a successor to the Soil Bank program of the 1950s and '60s, which was phased out due to concerns that it hurt farm economies in some places. Now, it's the "largest federal land-retirement program. . . . It costs close to $2 billion a year. . . . There were 23 million acres in the reserve at the end of May. The program cap is 27 million acres."

CRP acreage dipped around 2007 "due to factors that included a reduction in rental rates and higher commodity prices that made crop production more attractive," Abbott explains. "[It] was reduced repeatedly over the years by Congress. The 2018 farm law reversed course, starting at 24 million acres in fiscal 2019 and rising to 27 million acres this year. . . Grassland CRP pays an annual rent while allowing producers to graze livestock and harvest hay from the land. Rental payments were set at a minimum of $15 an acre. The USDA says the program helps sequester carbon in vegetation and the soil and increases resilience to drought and wildfire."

"Of the land accepted for Grasslands CRP, 430,899 acres were in Colorado, followed by 417,865 acres in Nebraska and 325,443 acres in South Dakota," Abbott adds. "For the CRP overall, the leading states were Colorado, with 2.45 million acres; Texas, with 2.16 million acres; and South Dakota, with 2.1 million acres."

Some farm groups object to proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons, saying a bigger grocer will hurt small farmers

The planned merger of grocers Kroger and Albertsons "has farmers and farmworkers worried about its negative impact on farms and rural communities," reports Shelby Vittek of Ambrook Research. The National Family Farm Coalition, the National Farmers Union, Farm Action and an assortment of regional grower associations "sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission expressing their opposition to the merger, which they said would 'create a new mega-grocery buyer with exceptional buyer power to squeeze its suppliers, shrinking farmers' and workers' share of the food dollar.'"

The merger, which could "cause conflicts with overlapping markets — Western Growers, the California Fresh Fruit Association, and Colorado Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association — submitted an additional letter to the FTC," Vitteck writes. "In it, the groups pointed to the Albertsons' acquisition of Safeway in 2015 — after which the company awarded contracts only to its largest produce suppliers, leaving smaller farmers to sell elsewhere — as an example of the negative outcomes that can be expected with a merger of this size." Their letter sums up the possible purchase: "The buying power of the newly combined Kroger entity cannot be understated."

Small farmers are already struggling to compete for sales to larger chain groceries. Vittek reports, "Farmers routinely sell their crops for less than what it costs to produce them. The pressure of farming with such small margins has led 'members to farm less acreage, move production to other countries when feasible, or leave farming altogether,' the letter from the Western grower groups read. If the Kroger-Albertsons merger is allowed to continue, competition among buyers will shrink, leaving farmers with fewer customers (in this case, grocery retailers) to work with."

American farmers face large-chain "take it or leave it" bargaining tactics, which can erase their profits, alongside competition from foreign growers. "The trade organizations that oppose the merger emphasize the harm done to American farmers as grocery retailers continue to source more foreign producers, who are ready, willing and able to undercut American producers on operating costs and the price they will accept from the retailer. . . . That is harmful for farmers, farmworkers and rural communities that depend on a robust agriculture industry.'"

The merged grocer would have 710,000 employees in 48 states, a workforce some would say already suffers from corporate greed. "Profiteering stands out at Kroger and Albertsons, with profits far outpacing worker wage growth or the cost of food," wrote Daniel Fleming and Judy Wood in a CalMatters op-ed. "Their outsize price hikes are at least partially responsible for inflation. Even while they were competing with each other, these companies jacked up prices and had record profits."

The Federal Trade Commission "is in no rush to approve the merger" because grocery prices are a big part of inflation, "a hot topic political issue that Republicans have pressed against President Biden," Thomas Lee reports for The Street.

N.Y. Times and Mississippi's forever investigative reporter, Jerry Mitchell, spotlight a second sheriff's abusive record

Sheriff Eddie Scott is a popular and powerful public figure in Clay
County, Mississippi. (Photo by Rory Doyle, The New York Times)

A second Mississippi sheriff is under investigation for repeated acts of sexual harassment, coercion, and abuse of power.

In 11 years in office, Eddie Scott, sheriff of Clay County, "has repeatedly been accused of using the power of his position to harass women, coerce them into sex and retaliate against those who criticize him or allege abuse," report Ilyssa Daly of The New York Times and Jerry Mitchell of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, which has joined the nonprofit newsroom Mississippi Today. 

"In rural communities like Clay County — dominated by farmland and economic hardship — some sheriffs rule like kings. They can arrest anyone they choose, smear reputations and hand out reprieves and other favors," Daly and Mitchell write. "They have enormous latitude to hold people in jail as long as they please, and they answer to no one, typically facing little press or prosecutorial scrutiny."

The sheriffs' counties

Scott is not the first sheriff to be investigated by this team, a Times investigative fellow and Mississippi's leading investigative reporter for decades. They note, "Three months ago, the Times and Mississippi Today told the story of another sheriff's office less than 40 miles away. Former Noxubee County Sheriff Terry Grassaree rose in the ranks of his Mississippi department and kept his elected office for years despite similar accusations of abuse. He was voted out in 2019 and now faces federal charges of bribery. But in Clay County, Scott remains in power even after repeated allegations of misconduct."

Since 2012, multiple women have submitted court filings alleging Scott's coercion and harassment. No amount of evidence prompted court officials to open a serious investigation. Scott has pursued his victims at will and used his position to punish his accusers, the story reports: "At least five people who accused the sheriff of misconduct, or who were potential witnesses in the cases, said he had retaliated against them, efforts they believe were intended to silence them or discredit their allegations."

The pattern has continued, with a series of complaints in 2017, and in 2021, Caitlyn Wilson, a former Clay County investigative assistant, filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint "that said Sheriff Scott had made sexual advances toward her and threatened to fire her after she rebuked him," Mitcell and Daly report. "She made reference to other women whose similar experiences had not yet been made public. . . . 'It appears to be well-known within the County that the Sheriff suffers from a sexual addiction,' her complaint said. The EEOC did not weigh in on the merits of Wilson's complaint, but determined she had the right to sue. Scott has yet to face any criminal charges. "

In 2021, the FBI opened an investigation. "They interviewed nearly a dozen witnesses, including Scott and staff members in his office. No charges have been filed," Daly and Mitchell write. Scott, 58, has professed his innocence. " He said he has had to defend his reputation from 'con artists' and 'drug users' who were inventing accusations to avoid jail time or somehow benefit financially."

Scott is a popular figure in Clay County. "On the 137-acre spread where his family once raised cows, he hosts fish fries and crawfish boils, where he swaps stories and swigs cold beer with fellow law enforcement officers and some of the county's most powerful officials," the story says.

Scott “believes that he will be vindicated and that voters will see through the allegations to re-elect him in the deciding Democratic primary election on Aug. 8. . . . He will leave office on his own terms, regardless of what becomes of the accusations against him. He said he believes the federal investigation is over." Scott told the Times: "I wasn't going to let a bunch of drug heads run me out of office."