Appeals court voids big verdict against Klansman

A $1.3 million verdict against the former leader of a Ku Klux Klan affiliate was overturned yesterday by the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which ruled that "there isn't enough evidence to hold him liable in the beating of a minority teen by other Klansmen at a county fair" in Brandenburg, Chris Kenning reports for The Courier-Journal. The Southern Poverty Law Center promised an appeal.

Ron Edwards, head of the Imperial Klans of America, was included in a $2.5 million judgment that also went against another IKA member who didn't appeal but has no assets. "Two other assailants settled out of court," Kenning notes. the appeals court panel ruled 2-1 that “there was no evidence that Edwards had encouraged or instructed any of the assailants to go to the fair” and “no evidence that he had encouraged or instructed the assailants” to assault Jordan Gruver, 19.

Kenning reports, "Since the trial, the IKA, once the nation's second-largest Klan group with 39 chapters in 26 states, has dwindled to two chapters, the law center said." Its spokesman said, "A big part of the decline was due to the fact that the trial discredited Edwards by showing he was running the group for his own financial benefit." (Read more) Here is our original item on the case.

Tractor Supply known for knowledgeable staff

Gary M. Stern, for Investor's Business Daily, reports on Brentwood, Tenn., based Tractor Supply -- the biggest rural retailer in the U.S., with 976 stores in 44 states. Tractor Supply has made a special effort to recruit staffers "with expertise in four areas: farming, ranching, horses and welding. Why welding? If they know welding, odds are that they've mastered nearly everything else in home repair," according to Stern. Tractor Supply, whose revenue rose to $3.2 billion in 2009 and is on track to hit $3.5 billion in 2010, believes that specialized workers are a competitive edge.

James Wright, CEO of Tractor Supply, says creating a reservoir of staff knowledge helps retain both customers and employees. "Only with longevity of staff can we build deep category expertise," he said to Stern. Hiring interviews and job descriptions are extensive. Retail staff turnover has gone from 100% to 35% annually. On the store manager side, it's fallen from 43% to 15%. Tractor Supply is planning on opening 75 to 80 stores in 2011. (Read more)

Three rural Wisconsin newspapers combine to make new weekly

Three weekly rural Wisconsin newspapers -- the Arcadia News-Leader, Whitehall Times, and the former Galesville Republican -- have combined to form a new weekly, the Trempealeau County Times, reports Chuck Rupnow for the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. The three weeklies were bought by News Publishing Co. of Black Earth, which produces 20 other weekly papers, including the Banner-Journal in Black River Falls, and 16 shopper publications in Wisconsin and Iowa, reports Rupnow.

Chuck Blaschko, CEO of Blaschko Enterprises, called the decision to sell the Arcadia newspaper to News Publishing "a good business decision. ... From our standpoint, the majority (about 95 percent) of our business involves commercial printing, so it's not so bad," said Blaschko to Rupnow. "Combining the three papers provides a broader base for advertisers in the county, which should be good." Blaschko said the Arcadia paper has been in the family for about 55 years, since Chuck's father, Harold Blaschko, bought it from Albert and Elsie Gauger, grandparents of Chuck Gauger, who ran the Whitehall paper and now serves as general manager of the Trempealeau County Times. (Read more)

Audit finds that Recovery Act loans for rural homes were made to some ineligible borrowers

Part of the 2009 economic stimulus package included federally-backed loans for rural homes. Last year, the guarantees reached nearly $16.8 billion, up from $3.7 billion two years earlier, writes William Neuman for The New York Times. A new audit of the program, administered by the United States Department of Agriculture, has found that the program "was plagued by lax government oversight and many of the same sloppy banking practices that fed the broader mortgage debacle.  Although the auditors looked at only a tiny sample of the 133,053 loan guarantees made in 2009, they estimated that tens of thousands might have been done improperly and warned that a wave of defaults might be looming," according to Neuman.

The audit found that more than 10 percent of the loans might have been to borrowers who were not eligible and might not have had the means to pay them back. The audit, released last week by the office of the U.S.D.A. inspector general, Phyllis K. Fong, also found that U.S.D.A. officials failed to detect the errors. The foreclosure rate for the U.S.D.A.’s portfolio of guaranteed mortgages rose to 2.25 percent in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The year before, the rate was 1.72 percent, and in 2007, it was 1.38 percent. (Read more)

Iowa doctor permitted to provide abortion pills to rural women via video

The Iowa Board of Medicine has decided to allow Planned Parenthood of the Heartland to continue using a video system to provide abortion pills to women in rural areas, reports Tony Leys for the Des Moines Register. The system, the first of its kind in the nation, allows a physician in Des Moines to deliver the pills to patients in remote clinics around the state, writes Leys. The doctor reviews each patient's records, speaks to her for a few minutes via videoconferencing, then pushes a computer button that opens a drawer in front of the patient. The patient reaches in the drawer to retrieve the pills, then takes the first dose while the doctor watches. She takes the rest of the pills at home, where she has an induced miscarriage.

The national anti-abortion group Operation Rescue complained to the Iowa board  that the practice did not meet the requirements of state law. The board deliberated the case in a closed session, then told Operation Rescue that it would not sanction the Planned Parenthood doctor. Jill June, president of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said the system is used by other medical specialists to treat rural patients. "It would be turning the clock backwards and really discriminating against people who want and need health care but don't happen to live in urban areas," June said. (Read more)

USDA proposes overhaul to school lunches; awards grant to fight rural child obesity

A U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal released Thursday would require school cafeterias to serve children more whole grains, fruits and vegetables. The plan would be "the first major nutritional overhaul of students' meals in 15 years," The Associated Press reports. The proposal also calls for schools to cut sodium in meals subsidized by the federal government by more than half, use more whole grains and serve low-fat milk. French fries would no longer be a daily staple of school lunches as the proposal limits children to one cup of starchy vegetables a week.

"Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new standards could affect more than 32 million children and are crucial because kids can consume as much as half of their daily calories in school," AP writes. The guidelines are based on 2009 recommendations by the Institute of Medicine. "The announcement comes just a few weeks after President Barack Obama signed into law a child nutrition bill that will help schools pay for the healthier foods, which often are more expensive."

"The subsidized meals that would fall under the guidelines proposed this week are served as free and low-cost meals to low-income children and long have been subject to government nutrition standards," AP writes. "The new law for the first time will extend nutrition standards to other foods sold in schools that aren't subsidized by the federal government, including a la carte foods on the lunch line and snacks in vending machines." Standards for those foods will be written separately but are expected to be similar to standards for subsidized meals. (Read more)

USDA also announced Thursday it had awarded Oregon State University a $4.9 million grant to develop an obesity prevention program for rural Oregon children. The grant goes to OSU researchers Deborah John and Kathy Gunter to start “Generating Rural Options for Weight-Healthy Kids and Communities." The program "will work with Cooperative Extension in six Western states to engage rural people in community-based research to assess features in rural communities that either prevent or promote obesity and community resources and readiness that could help with prevention efforts," USDA writes. Based on these assessments the researchers will implement an obesity intervention program in three Oregon counties. (Read more)

Recent rise in farm debt resembles the run-up to the 1980s farm debt crisis

Farm debt has risen almost five percent annually since 2004, the largest increase since the years leading up to the 1980s farm debt crisis. "Today’s rising debt raises questions about whether U.S. farm operations will face financial stress in the future," Brian C. Briggeman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reports. Briggeman defines farm financial stress as the inability to meet debt service payments, including principal and interest and notes "the primary determinants of financial stress are the level of debt, its cost or interest rate, and the amount of farm income available to service the debt."

"In recent years, low interest rates and robust farm income have kept financial stress from spiking for the average farm operation," Briggeman writes. "Still, some agricultural enterprises have seen incomes fall, leaving some producers with elevated levels of financial stress." Unlike the years leading up to the 1980s farm debt crisis, the accumulation of farm debt in recent years has been concentrated in real estate and among a small group of producers, Briggeman reports. From 2003 to 2009 farm real estate debt rose more than six percent per year while non-real estate debt rose three percent per year.

The recent rise in debt has been concentrated among producers with more than $1 million in sales. From 2004 to 2008 total real farm debt doubled for these operations to $60 billion, Briggeman reports, noting these farms, which account for five percent of all farms, saw their share of total farm debt rise from 15 to 30 percent during that time. Farms with less than $1 million in total sales held roughly stead with $160 billion of debt, Briggeman reports. Low interest rates have allowed farmers to carry higher level of debt, but Briggeman concludes a financial shock, like a rise in farm interest rates, a decline in farm income or both, could increase financial stress quickly. (Read more)

PolitiFact sets its meters on Congress, governors; The Washington Post revives its FactChecker

PolitiFact, the fact-checking website that won a Pulitzer Prize for the St. Petersburg Times in 2009, has launched new watchdog measurinmg devices to track the campaign promises of congressional Republicans, and its state-level partners are doing likewise for new governors.

"Pledge-O-Meter" uses the same approach as Obameter, which tracks more than 500 of President Obama’s promises. Six levels will provide a broad picture of whether GOP leaders are making progress: Promise Kept, In the Works, Compromise, Stalled, Promise Broken ot Not Yet Rated. New govenors in Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin will get similar measures, named after each of them.

PolitiFact says it will continue to use its Truth-O-Meter, left, to fact-check statements by politicians and interest groups. Personally, we think the meters are a little gimmicky. They do provide voters a clear handle for judgments, but we prefer the old-fashioned narratives of FactCheck.org, a service of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. It's run by Brooks Jackson, formerly of CNN and The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post has revived the paper's FactChecker column, which Michael Dobbs brgan during the 2008 presidential race. "We will not be bound by the antics of the presidential campaign season, but will focus on any statements by political figures and government officials -- in the United States and abroad -- that cry out for fact-checking," Kessler writes. "we will not be limited to political charges or countercharges. We will seek to explain difficult issues, provide missing context and provide analysis and explanation of various "code words" used by politicians, diplomats and others to obscure or shade the truth." (Read more)

Boss of biggest rural paper leaves to run schools

The chief excutive of the largest rural newspaper in the U.S., which has editorially supported use of private-sector managers in public education, has left to help run the local school system.

Billy Crews, right, of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo became chief operating officer of the Tupelo Public School District on Jan. 1. In the new, $122,000-a-year position he oversees non-instructional departments such as finance, human resources, technology and communications, the Journal reports.

Crews, 54, worked for the newspaper for 32 years and had been CEO since 1992. He remains chairman of Journal Inc., a part-time position. He is a protege of George McLean, who made the paper a leader in regional development and left it to a foundation that he created to benefit Tupelo and Northeast Mississippi.

Small-town Louisiana reporter digs into brutal, racially tinged murder; N.Y. Times follows up

A 46-year-old murder case has gotten new scrutiny by the 4,000-circulation weekly newspaper in Ferriday, La., drawing the attention of The New York Times. Stanley Nelson, reporting for the Concordia Sentinel, identified Arthur Leonard Spencer (Sentinel web page image) as the person who killed Frank Morris, a well-liked black businessman in Concordia County (wearing cap above; Mapquest image below)

Three people told Nelson that Spencer was part of a Ku Klux Klan hit squad assigned to ride into Ferriday to burn Morris' shoe shop during the early morning hours of Dec. 10, 1964, writes Nelson. Morris lived four days after the fire. "Only the bottom of his feet weren't burned," the Rev. Robert Lee Jr. of Clayton, age 96, who visited Morris in the hospital, told Nelson. "He was horrible to look at." During the four days he was hospitalized, Morris was interviewed by the FBI, Ferriday police and fire department officials. A number of friends who visited Morris in the hospital prior to his death were convinced Morris knew his killers. They said he called them "two white friends."

Leonard Spencer, 71, told reporter Nelson that he did not know anything about the crime and denied he participated in it. Spencer said he made the same denial to two FBI agents about 30 to 40 days ago. His son, William "Boo" Spencer, said Leonard Spencer and other men were surprised to find Morris in his shop that morning. "My dad said they could hear a stirring in the place, then a man came out," said Boo Spencer, 41. Boo Spencer said his father told him the man in the shop, Morris, "was doused with gasoline and started to run." Leonard Spencer's former brother-in-law, Bill Frasier, told Nelson that Spencer confessed to arson and claimed Morris' death was unintentional. The third person to tell a similar version of events was Leonard Spencer's ex-wife, Brenda Rhodes.

Transcripts of recorded FBI interviews with Morris when he was hospitalized following the arson, which the Sentinel obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, indicated Morris never told authorities he knew the men who set his shop on fire. In a morphine-induced consciousness, on at least 12 occasions during those interviews, Morris denied knowing who the men were. The FBI investigated the murder twice in the 1960s, and a third time in 2007. (Read more) (Index of stories on investigation)

Kim Severson, writing for the Times, writes that Rosa Williams, granddaughter of Frank Morris, "moved Mr. Nelson to dedicate himself to this and the other cold cases. ... From that moment on, Mr. Nelson has reported on little else," writes Severson. He was motivated by the curiosity of a newsman. Nelson, 55, told Severson: "What kind of human being could set another man on fire? ... I was just curious about something that happened in our community that I never knew about. I just wanted to find out who did it." (Read more)

Sale of private forests further endangers species

The key for protecting woodland plants and creatures may be stemming the sale of private forests, says a U.S. Forest Service report. "Increased housing density near and on private forests is threatening habitat for plants and animals already at risk of decline or extinction, according to the 24-page report by the agency's State and Private Forestry arm," Phil Taylor of Environment & Energy News reports. More than half of all U.S. forest land, 423 million acres, is privately owned. The report notes landowners often earn more by selling forest land to developers than preserving open space. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo: endangered green pitcher plant)

"Over half of America's forests are privately owned and are under pressure from housing development, pests, diseases and fire," Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said last week. "Future development is likely to result in a decrease of private forest habitat for many at-risk species." Tidwell noted the report, Threats to At-Risk Species in America's Private Forests, is designed to aid local and state agencies and conservationists in planning future developments and identifying at-risk species. The report is an update on a 2008 report that was "forecasting declines of at-risk species as a result of housing density increases through 2030," Taylor writes.

The report "includes case studies of at-risk wildlife species including the Chesapeake Bay's Delmarva fox squirrel, the key deer in southern Florida and the California tiger salamander," Taylor writes. Protecting private forests is of particular concern in the eastern U.S., where a higher percentage of forests are held by families and companies. "Since 87 percent of forest land in the U.S. South is privately held, the future of Southern forests -- and their species -- rests in the hands of private landowners," Craig Hanson, director of the People and Ecosystems Program at the World Resources Institute, told Taylor. (Read more, subscription required)

EPA gives biomass industry three-year exemption from new greenhouse-gas regulations

In September we reported concerns from the biomass industry about possible greenhouse-gas regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. On Wednesday EPA announced a three-year reprieve for the industry during which it would be exempt from the regulations, Gabriel Nelson of Environment & Energy News reports.

The industry "has claimed that the energy source is not contributing to climate change because it is part of a natural, carbon-neutral cycle," Nelson writes. "When new plants are grown, the argument goes, they absorb the same amount of carbon dioxide that the other plants had released when they were burned."

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said, "We are working to find a way forward that is scientifically sound and manageable for both producers and consumers of biomass energy. In the coming years we will develop a common-sense approach that protects our environment and encourages the use of clean energy. Renewable, homegrown power sources are essential to our energy future, and an important step to cutting the pollution responsible for climate change." The decision means the agency will need to make changes to its 'tailoring' rule, which lays out which types of new facilities will need to get greenhouse gas permits under the Clean Air Act," Nelson writes. (Read more, subscription required)

Rural school funding case reaches S.D. Supreme Court; justice says 'No one wants to live there'

The South Dakota Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case where parents say rural schools do not receive adequate state funding. "A judge ruled in 2009 in favor of the state, which says that courts cannot force the legislature to spend money or change education policy," Nomaan Merchant of The Associated Press reports. "On Tuesday, an attorney for the parents said rural schools are penalized because they have fewer students than districts in Sioux Falls. The state currently provides for a base amount of $4,804 per student, with small schools getting more for each student."

"This is the crisis point, in rural South Dakota, especially," parents' attorney Ronald Parsons Jr. told Merchant. "We can't just herd everyone into certain counties." Lawyers for the parents, who are backed by about 100 of the state's 161 school districts, "have said that some schools cannot afford to offer advanced math courses and other services that students need," Merchant writes. "Some districts have trouble hiring teachers because they offer lower salaries, and others cannot afford to fix buildings or build new schools. The state disputes that view, saying districts get enough money to provide an adequate education."

"Several justices said they were hesitant to declare the school funding system unconstitutional and force the legislature to make changes without suggesting an alternative," Merchant writes. Justice Judith Meierhenry noted, "The legislature needs to have more direction than that." Assistant Attorney General Diane Best argued the state was not responsible for poor student performance. "There are students who are not taking advantage of that," she said. "There isn't a system that can guarantee that a student will be motivated to come to school." Meierhenry, a Sioux Falls resident, also noted funding wasn't the only factor in rural schools inability to attract teachers. "It's more than just salaries," she said. "No one wants to live there." (Read more)

EPA vetoes biggest mountaintop-removal permit

The Environmental Protection Agency has vetoed the largest mountaintop-removal mining permit ever sought, for Arch Coal's proposed Spruce Mine near Blair, W.Va. (MapQuest image). "The move is part of an Obama administration crackdown aimed at reducing the effects of mountaintop-removal coal mining on the environment and on coalfield communities in Appalachia — impacts that scientists are increasingly finding to be pervasive and irreversible," Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports on his Coal Tattoo blog. "EPA officials this morning were alerting West Virginia’s congressional delegation to their action, and undoubtedly preparing for a huge backlash from the mining industry and its friends among coalfield political leaders."

EPA said it reviewed more than 50,000 public comments and held a major public hearing in West Virginia, and was "acting under the law and using the best science available to protect water quality, wildlife and Appalachian communities who rely on clean waters for drinking, fishing and swimming." Peter Silva, EPA administrator for water, said the mine "would use destructive and unsustainable mining practices that jeopardize the health of Appalachian communities and clean water on which they depend. Coal and coal mining are part of our nation’s energy future, and EPA has worked with companies to design mining operations that adequately protect our nation’s water. We have responsibility under the law to protect water quality and safeguard the people who rely on clean water." UPDATE, Jan. 14: Silva resigned as water administrator.

"EPA’s final determination on the Spruce Mine comes after discussions with the company spanning more than a year failed to produce an agreement that would lead to a significant decrease in impacts to the environment and Appalachian communities," EPA said. "The action prevents the mine from disposing the waste into streams unless the company identifies an alternative mining design that would avoid irreversible damage to water quality and meets the requirements of the law." The agency began looking more closely at the permit in September 2009 and issued a preliminary determination in March 2010 that the mine would cause unacceptable impacts. (Read more)

Meatpacker to clean effluent at big Colo. plant

Meatpacking giant Cargill on Tuesday announced plans to improve the quality of water discharged from its beef processing facility in Colorado. The project, which will cost an estimated $6 million, will "address the discharge of total inorganic nitrogen and phosphorous into the South Platte River at a plant that processes about 1.2 million head of cattle annually," Chris Scott of MeatingPlace reports. "The project will also provide improved biogas production, capture and use from organic materials in the facility’s wastewater."

Cargill plans to begin work in mid-2011 and hopes to complete the project by the third quarter of 2012. The company said "The project is part of a continuing water quality upgrade initiative at the Fort Morgan plant, which has already reduced nitrate discharge into local waterways by 70 percent between 2005 and 2009," Scott writes. (Read more, subscription required)

Ky. town bids fond farewell to general store

The closing of a historic general store in one Kentucky community meant more to locals than having to find a new place to shop. "Piece by piece, history was uncovered, auctioned off and packed out of Manton General Store on Saturday," Jesse Osbourne of The Springfield Sun reports. "That history, 61 years of it, is now spread out across the land like ashes of the dead. And like a death of a loved one, the loss of the store is heavy for those who knew it." Historic relics from the store were auctioned off during to the highest bidder on Saturday. (Photo by Osbourne)

"This funeral wasn’t all about mourning, though," Osbourne writes. "There were plenty of smiles amongst the people jammed into the store on Saturday, too." The store was opened in 1950 by the Newton family, which has operated it since. John and Bobby Newton, who operated the store for the last four years, told Osbourne they just got tired of keeping it running. While the store no longer kept a full stock like it once did, until Saturday it still sold "soft drinks, sandwiches, 'odd and end groceries,' and cigarettes," Osbourne writes.

The closing of the store meant the end to a prominent hangout spot for several locals. "My loafing spot is gone," one regular, Kenny Corbett, told Osbourne. "After the auction, the building, which the Newton brothers think was built around 1925, will be vacant until the owner, Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Manton, finds another use for it," Osbourne writes. "The brothers didn’t know what intentions the church had for the building, if any, but they said they didn’t believe it would be another grocery store." While those who attended the Saturday auction enjoyed themselves, the significance of the event was not lost on Corbett. "I love to do auctions," he told Osbourne. "But I didn’t want to do this one." (Read more)

Switchgrass shows promise for Ky. farmers

The growing market for new energy sources could be providing a new crop for farmers, especially Kentucky tobacco farmers. "A pilot project using switchgrass as an additive to coal being conducted by the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture in conjunction with East Kentucky Power Cooperative and 20 northeastern Kentucky producers is showing hope," Tim Thornberry of Business Lexington reports.  Dr. Ray Smith, a UK forage extension specialist, told Thornberry the initial success of the project should encourage farmers to try it on a larger scale. The current project planted 750 acres of switchgrass, but "an expansion of the project is in the works and is being funded through the Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund," funded by the national tobacco settlement with cigarette makers, Thornberry writes. 

"I think the greatest success of the project has been in providing practical advice to farmers on growing an alternative cash crop, and seeing them be successful," Smith told Thornberry. "These 20 farmers and their neighbors who have followed the project will be much more willing to try growing biomass crops on a large scale after seeing the success of the project and gaining the knowledge of how to grow and harvest switchgrass." Two Kentucky droughts since the beginning of the pilot period haven't been enough to slow the switchgrass's growth. "The 20 switchgrass stands grew well this year," Smith said. "Since it is a warm season grass (grows best when temperatures are in the 90's) and is very efficient with water, the heat and dry weather had very little effect on production."

Test burns of the switchgrass  have been successful on a small scale so far, said Nick Comer, spokesman for the power co-op. "It gave us an opportunity to look at, operationally, what we need to do in terms of processing and handling. On the first (burn) we just chopped up the switchgrass and put it in with the coal," he told Thornberry. "Last year we took pelletized switchgrass and mixed it in with the coal. Of course that's much easier to handle but there are costs involved in the process of turning it into pellets." He added "We didn't see anything that would indicate there would be a problem to burn on a much larger scale." (Read more)

Cellulosic ethanol industry fell short of 2010 goal; none was blended commercially in 2nd half

No cellulosic ethanol was commercially blended with gasoline in the second half of 2010 though the federal renewable fuel standard called for five million gallons of the fuel to be produced last year. The Environmental Protection Agency set the target after it "took stock of the nascent industry's capabilities and lowered the bar from the earlier congressional target of 100 million gallons," Dina Fine Maron of ClimateWire reports for The New York Times. A ClimateWire analysis of EPA data revealed the lack of production during the second half of 2010; industry executives expected the total production for the year would be higher, while still falling short of the mandated level.

"Nathanael Greene, director of renewable energy policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, also placed his estimate for total cellulosic ethanol production in the neighborhood of 1 million gallons," Fine Maron writes. The final tally for blending during the first half of 2010 is not yet available, and EPA declined to comment on its raw numbers. "Only a handful of pilot projects in the United States currently produce cellulosic biofuel, and they are not focused on selling it commercially," Fine Maron reports."As research and development plants, they do not operate at full capacity, and thus production costs, on a per-gallon basis, are steep."

The sources of cellulosic ethanol production are in flux as well. "The cast of companies that may be able to produce the fuel and sell it on the commercial market is constantly fluctuating, with some projects teetering on the brink of failure," Fine Maron writes, noting, "Industry experts say that lack of funds is what's holding back the industry, not technology. The harsh economy and bank requirements to prove that large biorefineries would be strong investments with definitive long-term customers leave startups struggling to find a source with deep pockets."

Some industry backers point to 2012 as the year cellulosic ethanol projects will scale up, driving its prices down. Those predictions are far from certain, Fine Maron reports. "You can't really mandate innovation. If a technology requires real innovation, requiring it isn't going to get it done," Greene told ClimateWire. "A lot of us have real optimism about this family of technologies ... but that doesn't mean you can time when it's going to happen." (Read more)

Duke Energy plans to acquire Progress Energy; not a good sign for the coal industry

Duke Energy, based in Charlotte, N.C.,  has proposed a $13.7 billion stock-swap acquisition of Progress Energy, based in Raleigh, N.C., reports Bruce Henderson of the Charlotte Observer.  State and federal regulators, as well as shareholders, still have to approve the deal, according to Henderson. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will also review the proposed merger and its nuclear power generation.

Duke plans to file rate cases in North Carolina this year to recover costs of building a new coal-fired power plant, Cliffside, and natural gas-fired plants at its Buck and Dan River plants. Duke also provides power to Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. It has relied on coal as a power source, but with the purchase of Progress, appears to be heading towards leaving coal behind. Duke CEO Jim Rogers said, "Nuclear provides 70 percent of the carbon-free electricity in the United States. ... That becomes, to me, the preferred technology." Rogers described "almost a tsunami" of capital needs facing both companies, including the need to replace aging power plants, meet stricter environmental standards and upgrade the grid. "When we look at the challenges we face in the future, we realized that we're in a better position to meet those challenges together than as separate companies," he said.  (Read more)

Rogers is among corporate America's loudest advocates for sharply slashed CO2 emissions, according to Steve Levine of Foreign Policy. "The Duke-Progress deal could not-so-subtly impact U.S. politics. If their deal is approved by regulators, the combined companies would be the country's largest single utility. One of the reasons for the victory of climate skeptics has been the lobbying of coal, oil and other industry lobbyists. But now Rogers' voice would become more influential in that lobby." (Read more)

Foreclosures spread beyond Mass. urban areas

A recent study by the Massachusetts Housing Partnership has found that more home foreclosures are outside the state's urban areas than in them. Jennifer B. McKim writes for the Boston Globe, "The shift of foreclosures from cities to outlying areas indicates that the sluggish economy and a lingering high unemployment rate, not subprime loans and predatory lending, have become the main reasons people lose their homes."

In small towns, foreclosed homes are spread across the community which makes the problem less obvious. That means public policy makers must find regional solutions instead of focusing on particular streets, said Clark Ziegler, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership. "In a lot of these more suburban and rural places, it is difficult to know what policy interventions will make a difference, short of seeing employment go up,"  Ziegler told McKim.

Massachusetts communities are trying to adjust to the situation. Ashburnham, for instance, is auctioning about 100 properties that were taken for unpaid taxes, even though the town recently approved a tax amnesty program. The town ranked third on the recent Massachusetts Housing Partnership list of municipalities with high rates of problem properties. A year earlier, it was 107th on the list. The value of municipal real estate in Ashburnham dropped from $696 million to $606 million in the last year, forcing officials to raise the property tax rate by about 6 percent, to $17.15 per thousand dollars of valuation, writes McKim. (Read more)