Clinton, in a coal field, on coal: 'It's gotta be cleaned up and we gotta be at the forefront'

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton said at the major Democratic Party dinner in the Western Kentucky Coal Field tonight that the coal industry's future depends on commercialization of "clean coal" technology.

"I want to keep coal as a major part of our energy creation, but its gotta be cleaned up and we gotta be at the forefront," Clinton said at the annual Ruby Laffoon Dinner in Madisonville. "If we take a new approach with this technology, we can export it across the globe.” Trey Pollard of PolitickerKY.com also reports, "Clinton also generally called for higher safety standards for miners." Western Kentucky, much of which lies in the Illinois Basin coal field, has both surface and underground mines.

Madisonville and the region have been hurt by loss of manufacturing jobs, many of which have been moved overseas, and Clinton referred to an Obama aide's reassuring the Canadian government about the North American Free Trade Agreement. "We will re-negotiate NAFTA," she said. "When I tell the people of Kentucky I am going to fix NAFTA, I mean it. I am not going to tell you people one thing and tell a foreign government something else.” (Read more)

The dinner is named for the first Hopkins County native to be governor, in 1931-35. The second is the current governor, Steve Beshear, who has lived all his adult life outside the county. He spoke at the dinner and said he remained undecided about a candidate for president. Pollard reports:

"For the first time in a long, long time, the Kentucky primary for President of the United States is going to mean something. Perhaps some of you are where I am right now. I haven’t quite made up my mind where I’m going," said Beshear.

Following this statement, shouts from the audience of "Hillary" and "Obama" competed for the Governor's ear, but he continued to acknowledge the candidacy of each contender.

"We have two extremely exciting, qualified candidates for President of the United States, either of whom will be a lot better than that fellow [the Republicans] picked to be in the White House for eight years," Beshear continued. "Senator Hillary Clinton was not only a good first lady, but a great senator from New York. She has run a great campaign, and it is going to be an exciting finish -- kind of like the Kentucky Derby."

The Derby is May 3. Kentucky's primary is May 20. (Read more)

N.Y. Republicans want Center for Rural Schools

The New York Senate's version of the state budget includes $500,000 for what would be the nation's first legislatively established center for rural schools, reports the Star-Gazette of Elmira. If the Democratic House agrees with the Republican plan, the center would be created at the state's major land-grant institution, Cornell University in Ithaca.

The idea of a Center for Rural Schools is pushed by Sen. George Winner, R-Elmira, who chairs the Legislature's Commission on Rural Resources. "If we're serious about remaking and strengthening upstate New York, we need to aggressively recognize that a rural school district can be a driving force for revitalization," he said. (Read more)

In the 2000 census, New York's rural population was almost 2.4 million, or about 12.5 percent of its total.

USDA makes huge loan for wireless broadband to a firm that won't talk and plans a novel approach

The Department of Agriculture is making a $267 million loan to bring wireless broadband service to 518 rural communities in 17 states, many of which have no broadband service. The states are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wisconsin. The money will go to Open Range Communications, which has $100 million in private investment.

A department news release said the project is designed to cover more than 6 million people in 447,000 households within five years. "The commitment by USDA and Open Range represents one of the largest public-private investments for broadband service by the federal government," the release said, quoting Tom Dorr, undersecretary for rural development: "Broadband is as important today as providing rural telephone service was 75 years ago."

The department has been criticized for not putting more money into rural broadband, but questions are already being raised about this loan. Not much is known about Open Range, which is based in Centennial, Colo. Company officials wouldn't comment to Kimberly Johnson of The Denver Post, who reported some possible problems with the company's approach, based on comments from Frank Ohrtman, president of a Denver-based WiMax consulting company.

"They intend to do a land-based broadband service using spectrum that was allocated as a satellite spectrum," Ohrtman told the Post. "They have to sublease the spectrum from others. That can be a real showstopper." Johnson added, "Open Range is not using industry standards that would make the cost of equipment lower for customers, Ohrtman said. If a vendor has to custom-build receivers or other equipment specifically for Open Range, costs could be higher." (Read more)

Founder of Museum of Appalachia wonders what will happen to it when he is gone

John Rice Irwin created the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tenn., largely with his own money and decades of effort. Now, recently made a widower at 77, he wonders what will happen to it when he is gone, Mike Gibson writes in a 3,800-word feature for Metro Pulse, a weekly in nearby Knoxville. (Photo by Shawn Poynter)

"He has just laid to eternal rest Elizabeth Irwin, his wife of 53 years, who had been suffering with congestive heart failure after an enervating bout with breast cancer," Gibson reports. "And the fate of his museum, a staggeringly well-appointed cultural preserve fashioned from hard work, dreams, and the detritus of a dying way of life, is also in doubt. Rice recently told his board of directors that he can no longer continue to shore up funding with substantial regular contributions from his own pocket, as he has done for so many years."

The museum "perennially runs five figures into the red," but Irwin told Gibson that if its finances worsened, it would not close, but stop acquiring items (it has bought 250,000), sell some animals and cut back on groundskeeping and activities. But he added, "There would be no more press releases about new things, and that’s what keeps people coming back. Lots of big museums have gone this route, and then they’ve lost 30 to 40 percent of their attendance." The museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, attracts about 100,000 visitors a year.

The 65-acre museum has 35 structures, a free-roaming meangerie and thousands of exhibits. "It is perhaps fruitless to even attempt a right summation of MOA’s many thousands of artifacts within the space of a single paragraph, from once-common household objects such as 19th century craftsman’s tools to lost or secreted treasures, some of which may stretch even the 21st century imagination," Gibson writes. Irwin, a former teacher and school superintendent, knows not just the artifacts, but how they were used, thanks in part to knowledge passed on by his grandfather, who was born in 1860.

“The ingenuity of the southern Appalachian people is such that they could do almost anything they set their minds to,” Irwin said, inspiring Gibson to write: "The same could be said of Irwin and this museum, his life’s work, a fabulous achievement that lies closer to his heart than perhaps anyone could understand." Roderick Moore, director of the Blue Ridge Institute in Virginia, told Gibson, “John saw that the objects of everyday man were important. He has a museum of artifacts from people who were below the level of historical scrutiny, during a time when every other museum wanted the biggest and the best.”

Irwin is a legend, but also an example of Jesus' observation about a prophet lacking honor in his home country. "Among some locals, Rice is regarded as a heartless profiteer who has made his fortune by exploiting the Southern poor," Gibson reports. "That perception is largely based on misinformation, and it’s a perception rankles Irwin to no end. [He] points out that he has never received a salary for his work with the museum, and that he recently wrote off a quarter million dollars of his own money that the museum has 'borrowed' from him over the years. What’s more, Irwin received the prestigious MacArthur [Foundation] 'genius' award in 1989, the full $350,000 of which he donated to the museum." (Read more)

Kentucky governor gives up on casino proposal

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat who ran last year on a platform of casinos at racetracks, including those in rural areas, said today that he has abandoned the idea at least until 2010, the next opportunity to put constitutional amendments on the state ballot. The idea was hampered by early disagreements over details, never got the 60 votes needed to pass the 100-member state House, and had poor prospects in the Senate.

"Beshear said he hasn’t thought about another, likely controversial option to expand gambling by executive order to allow slots at racetracks," The Courier-Journal reports. "That option hasn’t been seriously discussed in recent years but was mentioned previously as a possible way to expand gambling through the Kentucky Lottery."

Tracks want casinos to compete with those in adjoining states, and the state's budget crisis prompted various interest groups to support the idea, but their involvement also came too late to have much effect. (Read more)

Prospects for Farm Bill reform look dead to Wall Street Journal, but Grassley says he's still trying

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is making a last-ditch effort to put stricter limits on commodity subsidies in the new Farm Bill, reports Dan Looker of Agriculture Online: "Grassley likes a four-point plan put forth by the Center for Rural Affairs of Lyons, Neb.," and is pushing Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner to consider it.

"The Center's plan drops any effort to put a hard cap of $250,000 on payment limits but it could potentially save about $1 billion over 10 years, the nonprofit advocacy group's executive director, Chuck Hassebrook, told Agriculture Online Wednesday. And it also considers regional differences in agriculture, accounting for potentially higher production costs and values for such Southern crops as cotton, rice and peanuts," Looker writes.

The plan also includes "tougher requirements that people must be actively engaged in farming in order to receive commodity payments," an income limit for subsidy recipients, and lower limits on direct payments when prices are high, Looker reports. (Read more) UPDATE, March 28: The plan is "an effort to keep wealthy urban landlords from cashing in on federal farm programs," writes Dien Judge of the Iowa Independent, with a link to a statement from Grassley and Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota.

This morning, Lauren Etter and Greg Hitt of the Wall Street Journal delivered a long but clear explanation of how lobbying and politics, "at least so far," have quashed prospects for major reforms in farm programs, prospects that looked good a year ago. "Influential interest groups, which had toyed with supporting changes, cut deals to get their own piece of the action," write. "Lawmakers who supported an overhaul peeled off as the debate moved into the election year. Historical alliances between rural and urban lawmakers proved difficult to untie. The agribusiness industry plowed more than $80 million into lobbying last year, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks spending on lobbying. Much of that was focused on the Farm Bill." Lobbyists and farmers say the bill provides "a safety net through cycles of boom and bust." (Read more)

The article is accompanied by several interesting graphics, such as this one, showing how farm households' income has outpaced that of non-farm households since 1996. The last two red lines are forecasts of farm household income for 2007 (which has not been compiled yet) and 2008. Other graphics show the states and congressional districts that get the most money from farm subsidies, and the share of their gross domestic product that comes from agriculture. Most of the data come from the Environmental Working Group, which maintains a searchable database of subsidy recipients.

Art lovers and conservationists come together to protest oil drilling near Great Salt Lake artwork

On the northern shore of the Great Salt Lake is a piece of art not many people have seen, but those who have are fighting to preserve it, reports Kirk Johnson of The New York Times. Called “Spiral Jetty,” it's a "1,500-foot curved construction of rock and earth by the artist Robert Smithson that juts into the lake," and it has become a rallying point for art lovers and conservations who oppose plans to drill for oil nearby, Johnson writes. (Times photo by Tom Smart.)

"A fierce debate, with equal parts art, environmentalism and economics, has erupted over a plan by the state to allow oil drilling about five miles across the lake," he continues. "The owner of 'Spiral Jetty,' the Dia Art Foundation in New York, in an alliance with a conservation group called Friends of Great Salt Lake, says the oil rigs would harm the work’s aesthetic experience."

Those two groups have sparked a flood of e-mails — more than 3,000 — sent to the state during the public comment period. The state is expected to make a decision on the drilling plans in April. Drilling for oil is nothing new for the area. Pioneers harvested from a natural seep of oil sludge not far from "Spiral Jetty," and drilling was taking place in 1970 when Smithson sculpted the formation. (Read more)

WiFi system helps bring better test scores and new businesses in tobacco-dependent N.C. county

The importance of broadband access for rural communities is clear, and the example of Greene County, N.C., demonstrates once again the possible benefits of such access. The tobacco-dependent county of 19,000 people about an hour east of Raleigh has seen improved test scores and a better economic outlook thanks to its investment in a community wireless Internet system and laptop computers for local students, reports Julie Ardery of the Daily Yonder. (At right, Greene County students use their laptops in a photo from Apple.)

"The community showed high rates of poverty, low educational attainment, and outmigration through the 1990s, as declines in the domestic tobacco industry dragged this, 'the second most tobacco dependent county in the U.S.,' into economic decline," Ardery writes. "But community leaders made a major investment -- in local citizens and technology. Since providing all students grades 6 through 12 with laptop computers, beginning in 2003, and installing an affordable countywide wireless internet system so that those computers are easy to use, there have been remarkable changes."

Since then, the county has seen:

• SAT composite scores go up 41 points.
• High school proficiency scores increase from 53 percent to 78.4 percent.
  
• In 2006, 80 percent of high school seniors applied for college, up from 28 percent in 2004.
• 12 new business in 2006.

Ardery points out that the technology alone is not the reason for this turnaround. Rather, it's been the way community groups — from churches to city government — have worked together to provide free hot spots and technology training. The community also started "its own online Beehive -- a social networking site with many features for local citizens: candidates' forums, business news, plus information on careers, small business development and agricultural alternatives to tobacco," Ardery writes.

Ardery also notes the cost of connecting rural communities may be going down. Intel announced a rural connectivity platform last week, and Google has been working to use "buffer frequencies" between TV channels to transmit wireless service. (Read more)

Despite rising food prices, farmers' share of food dollar still falling

Food prices are on the rise in supermarkets across the country, and while that seems like good news for farmers and ranchers, they actually are seeing even less of the profits, according to an informal survey. The retail price of food has increased about 8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, according to American Farm Bureau Federation Marketbasket Survey.

"The informal survey shows the total cost of 16 basic grocery items in the first quarter of 2008 was $45.03, up about 8 percent or $3.42 from the fourth quarter of 2007," according to a news release. "Of the 16 items surveyed, 11 increased, four decreased and one stayed the same in average price compared to the 2007 fourth-quarter survey. Compared to one year ago, the overall cost for the market basket items showed an increase of about 9 percent."

The products with rising prices were a 5-pound bag of flour, cheddar cheese, corn oil, a dozen large eggs, vegetable oil, mayonnaise, Russet potatoes, a 20-oz. loaf of white bread, apples, whole fryer chickens, and ground chuck. The products with falling prices were whole milk, pork chops, a 9-oz. box of toasted oat cereal, and sirloin tip roast. The price of bacon remained the same.

Despite the rise in grocery prices, farmers and ranchers are seeing less and less of the cut.“In the mid-1970s, farmers received about one-third of consumer retail food expenditures on average. That figure has decreased steadily over time and is now just 22 percent, according to Agriculture Department statistics,” Jim Sartwelle, an AFBF economist, said. The AFBF estimates that the farmer's share of the $45.03 grocery bill would be be $9.90. (Read more)

Big papers abandon presidential campaign trail

Smaller newspapers and broadcast stations are bearing more of the responsibility of covering presidential candidates because major media are finding the cost of traveling with them, up to $2,000 a day, "too steep in an era in which newspapers in particular are slashing costs and paring staff, and with no end in sight to a primary campaign that began more than a year ago," writes Jacques Steinberg of The New York Times.

"Among the newspapers that have chosen not to dispatch reporters to cover the two leading Democratic candidates on a regular basis are USA Today, the nation’s largest paper, as well as The Boston Globe, the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Baltimore Sun, the Miami Herald and The Philadelphia Inquirer (at least until the Pennsylvania primary, on April 22, began to loom large)."

The value of traveling with a candidate is that you are able to "track the evolution and growth (or lack thereof) of candidates; spot pandering and inconsistencies or dishonesty; and get a measure of the candidate that could be useful should he or she become president," Steinberg notes. He acknowledges that good work is being done off the campaign trail, but "Readers are being exposed to fewer perspectives drawn from shoe-leather reporting." (Read more)

Bill Clinton stays on rural route, and stays mum on an introduction that mentions Obama's ex-pastor

Former President Bill Clinton, who last week called himself the "designated rural hit man" for his wife's presidential campaign, has followed a mostly rural schedule this week, even to the extent of making an "unscheduled" stop Tuesday at the Dairy Queen in Flemingsburg, Ky., and getting himself some ice cream, as owner John Sims Sr. helped. The photo was taken by Brian Hitch of the weekly Flemingsburg Gazette, which was tipped off to Clinton's plans and got The Ledger Indepedent in Maysville to delay printing the Gazette until Tuesday night so it could get a brief story in this week's paper. Writer Danetta Barker promises a full story and more photos next week.

After five stops in Kentucky, Clinton moved on yesterday to even more rural West Virginia, where Mike Memoli of NBC News and National Journal "reports that hours after Bill Clinton said surrogates should not resign simply for attacking the opposing campaign, a local official who has endorsed Hillary Clinton singled out the Jeremiah Wright controversy during his introduction of the former president," write Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro for NBC's First Read blog:

“I am not Jeremiah Wright, but I am an ordained minister and a pastor,” said Damron Bradshaw, mayor of the small town of Chesapeake. “What I have to say instead of what he said is God bless America!”After taking the stage moments later, Clinton simply thanked Bradshaw for his introduction without noting the comment. Instead, the former president focused his remarks on issues of particular interest to seniors. “West Virginia has one of the older populations in America, but the fastest growing group of Americans are people over 65,” he said at Chesapeake’s senior center. “We know that presents a significant challenge for us.”

Cheasapeake, a few miles up the Kanawha River from Charleston, is 10 percent African American. In Raleigh, N.C., "Obama said he hoped people would not be distracted from the important issues by a few 'stupid' comments made by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright," reports Rob Christensen of the News & Observer. Obama said, "This is somebody that was preaching three sermons -- at least -- a week for 30 years, and it got boiled down to a half-minute sound clip and just played over and over and over again, partly because it spoke to some of the racial divisions we have in this country." (Read more)

Todd and Montanaro make special note of North Carolina (which, we remind you again, has more rural people than any other state): "With her foray into NC and Bill’s all-out campaigning in a bunch of other post-PA states, all signs are pointing to this going on at least through the last contests in June. But keep a particular eye on Clinton in Carolina. This is becoming more and more of a must-win state; A combination of a 15-20 point win in Pennsylvania and an upset in the Tar Heel state would shake up this race in the same way Obama's 11-contest win streak in February did."

UPDATE, March 29: In Parkersburg, W.Va., Clinton said of Obama, "He gives a great speech, he's generated enormous support among young people, he's had by and large the sort of the culturally upscale part of the party and the media with him, he's raised an unprecedented amount of money, and she's still around, for some reason. Why? Why? Because of people who know they need a president as opposed to the feeling of change, the change they can rely on, are supporting her for president." For a report by Keri Brown of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, click here.

Former gubernatorial press secretary bemoans cuts in state-capital reporters in California

In 2004, the press office of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued 440 press credentials. Part of that was attributable to the novelty of the former actor's governorship, but in the last year, the number has dropped from 240 to fewer than 100, as California newspapers cut back on their coverage of state government, writes Margita Thompson, the governor's former press secretary.

That's not in the public interest, Thompson wrote in The Sacramento Bee: "I saw directly how the press corps' collective institutional knowledge and perspective added value to the public discourse. The stress of making sure I was prepared to answer their questions made me query officials internally, resulting in deliberations that often drove policy action. But with the advent of corporate financial concerns blurring the line with the newsroom, the seasoned Capitol bureau reporter is becoming extinct. . . . Fewer reporters will mean more work for those who are left, and larger beats to cover will translate into degraded expertise."

Thompson added, "There will be more standardization of stories, as wire services and media families diminish the local angles that provided a community connection. . . . Reporters will rely less on sources and more on routine professional pundits because there is less turnover there than in elective office. The few minutes provided by TV news or radio is no substitute for the in-depth coverage that served a broader public purpose. . . . Print reporters have a unique ability to make an impact on elected officials because their stories are so tangible and portable. They easily induce politicians to obsess over their clips."

Not only are there fewer reporters, Thompson writes, they "are increasingly put in the awkward position of being motivated not solely by objective analysis but rather by the need to generate readers – much like TV is driven by ratings. So we can expect more salacious gossip by hard news reporters, but less about boring stories such as the policy implications of the budget or health care. I received more calls about the governor's motorcycle accident and his fat lip than I ever did about California's water crisis. News consumers can expect more of the same. So, as the Capitol press corps dwindles, we may all end up hostage to a sensationalized media, where we choose to read about and listen to what we agree with, watch what entertains us and leave what might educate us in the dustbin with the newspaper." (Read more)

Kentucky horse owners seek remedies for crisis; N.H. sees rise in concern for animal welfare

We've often mentioned how the end of commercial horse slaughter in the United States, coupled with a continuing hay shortage and rising feed costs, has led to what some call a "horse crisis" — an abundance of unwanted or malnourished horses. At the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington this week, horse-rescue groups came together for a brainstorming session because many "have been swamped with horses that owners can no longer feed," reports Jim Warren of the Lexington Herald-Leader. The session was sponsored by the Kentucky Horse Council.

"One suggestion was for a Web site where rescues could exchange lists of the horses they have available for adoption and help one another find potential new owners for them," Warren writes. "That led to suggestions of holding regular adoption days -- possibly at the Horse Park -- where members of the public could come to adopt rescued horses. Officials noted that each horse adopted makes room for rescuers to take in another animal." The biggest problem, however, is the hay shortage caused by last summer's drought, and there appears to be no easy fix for that. (Read more)

UPDATE, March 27: The Herald-Leader's Greg Kocher reports that about 70 malnourished Tennessee walking horses (two in photo by Kocher) are being removed from a farm near Lexington, and a woman has been charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty. One of her friends "said the atmosphere was tense," Kocher reports. "This is not a thoroughbred farm. We don't have millions of dollars," the friend, Jeff Maness quoted Sharon Clagett as telling animal control officers. Instead of seizing animals and bringing charges, the government should help people by finding and providing hay, Maness said." (Read more)

In writing for her Weekly Market Bulletin, New Hampshire Agriculture Commissioner Lorraine S. Merrill explains how such rescue efforts fit into the evolving debate over animals in our society:

The number of bills in the legislature and the number of complaints coming in to the Department’s Division of Animal Industry about animal neglect, abuse and cruelty reflect the increasing — and conflicting — concerns about the care and use of animals in our society. Fewer people have connections to agriculture, or knowledge of livestock care, health or behavior, or the roles of livestock in our culture and society. Small animals come in for plenty of attention, too. Dr. Stephen Crawford, state veterinarian and director of the Division of Animal Industry, says much of this growing interest has political, social or emotional roots — often all three factors together.

The commissioner's column, headliend "Animal Passions," touches on an increase in legislative proposals in New Hampshire related to animal welfare and the jump in reports of animal neglect (often false or sometimes motivated by factors beyond an animal's well-being, Merrill notes). To read the Weekly Market Bulletin, go here.

West Virginia study finds higher rates of lung and kidney disease in coal-mining communities

A researcher from West Virginia University found the state's coal-producing counties had higher rates of kidney and lung disease and high blood pressure than the state's non-coal counties, reports Scott Finn of West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Researcher Michael Hendryx believes exposure to coal dust and mining runoff might be the cause.

"Hendryx . . . controlled for lifestyle differences, such smoking rates, and other factors like income," Finn reports. "He found that people in coal mining communities have a 70 percent increased risk for developing kidney disease, a 64 percent increased risk for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, such as emphysema, and are 30 percent more likely to report high blood pressure."

Hendryx visited the counties he studied, and what he observed leads him to blame coal pollution. “I went to one town where I witnessed an explosion from the mountaintop removal site and watched the dust settles over the neighborhood," he told Finn. "When you see things like that, you know you’re dealing with something real.” Hendryx estimates that coal pollution kills 313 West Virginians each year. He plans to test air and water samples from coalfields to determine the level of pollutants. His current study will be published in next month's issue of American Journal of Public Health. (Read more)

The study also led Hendryx to conclude that people in coal-producing counties are more likely to die earlier, reports Tim Huber of The Associated Press. While the findings "target coal mining pollution, Hendryx blames smoking, poverty and poor education for much of the region's poor health," Huber writes. "I think the environmental impact from coal mining is less than those three, but still significant by itself," Hendryx told Huber. "When I controlled for smoking rates, I found that there was still elevated lung cancer in coal mining areas." (Read more)

Fears of a labor shortage prompt a leading tomato grower to plant other crops this year

Without a federal guest-worker program in place, the leading tomato grower in the northeastern United States says he "simply can’t risk planting a crop that could end up rotting in the fields," reports Peter Shinn of Brownfield Network.

Without a dependable source of labor to harvest tomatoes, Keith Eckle said he will shift to pumpkins and sweet corn this year. "But because produce is of such greater value, even with high commodity prices, Eckle said he’ll probably only make a third of the profit he enjoys in a typical year," Shinn writes. "And according to Eckle, there's much more at stake than his operation. Unless Congress takes action to put a useable guest worker program in place, Eckle said, American consumers can look forward to increasing dependence on foreign sources of produce." Eckle said the existing H2A visa program requires too much work and effort for the number of workers he needs. (Read more)

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security renewed its effort to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. The DHS proposed a similar effort last fall, and farmers worried that such an effort coupled with the lack of a guest-worker program would disrupt the harvest.

Local TV stations collaborate to give documentary on meth concurrent prime-time airing

In an example of cooperative community journalism, television stations in several markets are showing a documentary on methamphetamine (seen in powder form in the Global Studio photo at left) at the same time — known as a "roadblock" in TV parlance, coined in the days before cable TV was prevalent.

Sacramento was the fifth market to give such treatment to "Crystal Darkness," reports Sam McManis of the Sacramento Bee. "Originally produced for Reno TV stations in January 2007, 'Crystal Darkness' used interviews with addicts from all walks of life, graphic images of the damage done and sobering violent-crime statistics. It also provided a toll-free number for people to get help."

The program was so successful in Reno that other markets sought their own localized versions. "In May in Las Vegas, 50 percent of the households tuned in to the documentary, according Nielsen ratings," McManis writes. "In August, 25 stations in five Oregon cities broadcast the documentary, and newspaper reports say the toll-free number was flooded with calls. And in December, San Diego stations blanketed the airwaves."

There is a Spanish version of the documentary, which will air at 11:30 a.m. Saturday on Sacramento's Spanish-language station. (Read more)

A tip of the hat to Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institute for spotlighting this documentary, and for digging up some other links related to the story:

• Clips from the documentary on YouTube.
• The Web site for the documentary, CrystalDarkness.com, which features information on the campaign that accompanies the airing of the program.
  
• Story from KPTV in Oregon about a phone bank set up to handle the flood of calls after the airing on the show.
  
• Story from KVBC-TV in Las Vegas about rehabilitation centers receiving referrals and taking in patients after the program aired.
  

Clinton, Obama using silencers on firearms issues

In their epic contest, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have had plenty of chances to speak out on just about every issue, but have been notably silent on one that is important to many Americans, especially those in rural areas: gun control. They are following a recent trend among Democratic candidates, reports Dan Lightman of McClatchy Newspapers.

"For years, the national party has downplayed its historic sympathy for gun control for fear that emphasizing it would be politically costly," Lightman writes. "Democrats have been skittish about gun control since 1994," when a Democratic Congress passed an assault-weapons ban and was transformed into a Republican Congress. Many Democrats again saw gun control as a key reason Al Gore lost the 2000 presidential election.

Republican Sen. John McCain joined 54 other senators in a brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn the handgun ban in Washington, D.C., but Clinton and Obama declined to join the rival brief supporting the ban. To Lightman's questions about that, the Democratic campaigns asserted the candidates' belief in the Second Amendment -- the meaning and extent of which are at issue in the case that was argued before the Supreme Court Last week. Both have a history of support for gun control, and so the softened stances likely reflect the importance of gun-owning voters — many of whom live in rural areas of the upcoming primary states of Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon. (Read more)

The McClatchy report also offers a links to a clip of Clinton's and Obama's responses to a gun control question during a January debate, as well as a clip of Clinton talking about duck hunting in Arkansas.

Philly mayor seeks Democratic presidential forum on urban issues; how about one on rural issues?

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter called yesterday for a presidential forum on urban issues, and Sen. Hillary Clinton, whom he is supporting in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary, immediately agreed.

A spokesman for Sen. Barack Obama said, "We welcome a conversation about urban issues. We'll see what develops with his schedule."

Speaking for the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, we would welcome a conversation about rural issues -- which, as far as we can tell, have not been spotlighted in the presidential race since late October, when we and several other groups sponsored a forum at the National Summit on Agriculture and Rural Life in Ames, Iowa. Obama and Sen. John Edwards spoke at that forum, and Clinton participated by video link. (Associated Press photo above shows the two remaining candidates at a happier time, Jan. 31.)

Now that the Democratic field has narrowed to two candidates, and most of the primaries after Pennsylvania are in some of the more rural states, we think it's time for another forum on issues that are important to the one in five Americans who live in rural areas. Here are just a few: Access to broadband and other technology for competitive economic development; how to adjust the Farm Bill to better support sustainable rural development; how to change the No Child Left Behind Act to ease its impact on rural schools while maintaining its goal of better and equal education; how to answer questions about emphasis and balance among food, agriculture and energy; and how to address the chronic problems of rural health care, including that for injured Iraq war veterans, who are disproportionately rural.

Some of those issues overlap with topics Nutter cited yesteday, according to Dave Davies of the Philadelphia Daily News, who quoted his mayor as saying, "What are you going to do about public education . . . jobs and economic development, re-entry programs? How do we finally start to lift people out of poverty? That's what candidates should be talking about. I'd like to have that discussion right here in Philadelphia." (Read more)

And because our institute is based in Kentucky, a state that votes May 20 and is more than twice as rural as Pennsylvania (44 percent to 21 percent), we'd like to see it here. But the location is far less important than the need to have such a forum. Let us know what you think, via comments or e-mail.

The 'Marlboro Marine' is still at war, with himself

The Marlboro Marine is back in the news. Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, 23, was honorably discharged with post-traumatic stress disorder exactly a year after Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco took an iconic picture of him (left) during a firefight in Fallujah, Iraq. Sinco wrote about his continuing relationship with Miller in November; in the latest Rolling Stone, Jenny Eliscu focuses on Miller and gives new details of his life deep in far Eastern Kentucky. The story is harrowing.

Eliscu reports, "As cigarette butts overflow in the ashtray and empty beer bottles collect around him, he silently cycles through procedures the Marine Corps drilled into his head: defend, reinforce, attack, withdraw, delay. He knows it's only seven steps to the front door, but he worries whether his truck has enough gas to make an escape. He wishes someone had told him that 'There may come a time when all that shit you learned, you might not be able to turn it off.' Since returning home from Iraq three years ago, Miller rarely sleeps more than once every few days. When he can get some sleep, he makes sure he's got a gun under his pillow. His entire life has been thrown into a strange and purposeless blend of chaos and inertia; though he doesn't do much these days besides smoke, drink beer and ride his Harley, he seems to teeter perpetually on the brink of a meltdown. Occasionally, and without provocation, Miller becomes so overwhelmed by blind rage that he imagines shooting a stranger in the kneecaps or beating a fellow bar patron to a bloody pulp."

Miller told Eliscu he was driven to enlist by the 9/11 attacks and a desire to leave Kentucky. "It was the only way I knew to travel and see the world," he said. "I just happened to pick a weird time to go. I got to travel, and it was a life-altering experience, that's for sure." Eliscu writes, "The town of Jonancy, nestled deep in the Appalachian Mountains, is the kind of place that inspires thoughts of escape. Unemployment in the area is 35 percent higher than the national average, the median household income is less than $24,000 and only 10 percent of county residents earn college diplomas."

Here's the really rural angle: "Miller hasn't been to a doctor in over a year, and, like so many vets, he seems to have fallen off the government's radar. He tried the abundance of medications — antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds, mostly — that the Veterans Administration has sent him, but they only exacerbated his nightmares, jitters and apathy. And therapy is hard to get in places like Jonancy: For a while, he tried living in West Virginia to be near a PTSD specialist, but he missed his familiar surroundings and moved back home." Sinco told Eliscu, "It's hard to hang out with him sometimes. You end up driving 1,500 miles at the drop of a hat because he's in the mood to go somewhere."

Eliscu writes, "There is a heavy institutional stigma about mental-health issues in the armed forces, and since the military doesn't conduct mandatory post-deployment psych evaluations in person, vets like Miller are left to make their own health-care decisions. . . . Miller receives a monthly benefit of $2,500 in disability payments — compensation not only for his mental injuries but for an array of physical impairments including hearing loss in his right ear, shrapnel scarring and a bacterial infection in his tear ducts. He has no cartilage left in either knee, and the muscles in his feet have calcified from carrying a 200-pound pack on his back in Iraq."

He still carries burdens not measured in pounds. When he wakes up each morning, Miller told Eliscu, he asks himself, "What did I do to make me deserve another day? What have I done in my life that my buddies didn't do to make me deserve so many days?" (Read more)

Weekly newspaper in Western Kentucky shows blogs don't have to be just for big-city dailies

The Crittenden Press in Marion, Ky., prints its 4,000 copies in black and white each Wednesday on one of the older presses in the state. Online, however, the newspaper and its editor, Chris Evans (left), are trying to stay ahead of the technological curve. The newspaper set a bold goal of tripling its online ad revenue this year, and as part of that effort, Evans started a blog in late 2007. In addition, the newspaper has started posting video clips to YouTube — and linking them to the paper's Web site. Evans said both the blog and videos have helped drive traffic to the site, with a minimal investment of time and technology that other small papers can afford.

Evans began blogging back in late 2007 because he wanted to update the paper's site when news broke between editions. The site's content was tied to one computer that stayed in the newsroom, but a friend in the publishing industry suggested that Evans use a blogging service that would allow updates from any computer at any time. He uses Blogger, which The Rural Blog began using last summer.

The new blog's birth in January coincided with a severe ice storm in Western Kentucky, so the newspaper's blog quickly became a key way for the newspaper to share information. With power issues interfering with the paper's printing, and leaving many residents without electricity, Evans set up outside the local library and used its WiFi to post updates on repairs to downed power lines and other information. He learned that people from outside Crittenden County were reading the blog and calling relatives there to tell them about the updates.

"It was educational for me because I learned how good a tool it good be," Evans said. He posts about twice a day, often highlighting breaking news or upcoming projects the paper has in the works.

"I use it to kind of supplement what we do in our print product," he said. "I do have people that pick up a paper and say 'I saw where you doing a story on this.' I know it's working. People stop me in the grocery store and say something about it. It's especially good to know people are going online in this rural community and getting satisfaction where they used to get it only on Wednesdays."

Because Evans keeps his laptop with him constantly — "might as well be a watch on my arm," he said — he is able to post quickly from home or the office or wherever. Because the blog is Web-based, no space in the newspaper or in its servers is sacrificed. The blog helped pave the way for making YouTube videos to accompany newspaper reports. At the same time, he said the technology can't just be for technology's sake. "You get really excited about your new technology, but you don't want to forget your bread and butter," he said.

The lesson here is that blogs and Web videos aren't just for big dailies — small weeklies can get in the game thanks to free, Web-based software. Small newspapers can add such features without sacrificing lots of time or money, and this new technology can be help deliver the "bread and butter" of community journalism.