Ailes ran surveillance on his weekly newspaper's editor and reporters, who quit, Gawker reports

Three months ago we passed along The New Yorker magazine's take on Fox News boss Roger Ailes, his wife Beth (right) and their weekly newspapers in Putnam County, New York, saying that local news coverage had improved because of them and a competitor that started after they arrived in the market. This month, their editor and two reporters quit "after Ailes told them he'd had them followed, and their private conversations surveilled, to catch them saying mean things about him," John Cook and Hamilton Nolan reported April 18 for Gawker. (Photo from Gawker)

Editor Joe Lindsley, 27, served notice even before The New Yorker's article, in which he praised the Aileses, Gawker reports. "At some point during the first week of April, Lindsley abruptly cut his transition short and quit outright, as did two of his young reporters, T.J. Haley and Carli-Rae Panny. The reason, multiple former employees say, is that in late March, Ailes confronted the three staffers and accused them of badmouthing him and Elizabeth during their lunch breaks." The story also reports, apparently with Lindsley as its source, that after he left, a security staffer for News Corp., parent of Fox, followed him.

Beth Ailes told Gawker, "These rambling allegations are untrue and in fact not even reality based. The paper hoped for Joe's success in spite of his personal habits and lack of performance, which included getting the weekly editions out late and over budget for three months. There's a sad disconnect between his claims of undying gratitude and his current state of agitation." There's a lot more in the story.

Big telecoms complain that stimulus money is creating competition for broadband providers

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, a lobby for companies that provide TV, phone and Internet service, released a study this week to show that federal economic-stimulus money has been "used to duplicate services that already exist" in Kansas, Minnesota and Montana, Jonathan Ellis reports for USA Today.

"The study focuses on three projects worth $231.7 million in grants and loans from [the] Rural Utilities Service," Ellis writes. "It concludes that more than 85 percent of households in those project areas already have access to some form of broadband service, whether through cable broadband, DSL or fixed wireless broadband providers."

RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein said the projects were needed to promote economic development in the three areas. The law allows RUS "to fund projects as long as 75 percent of the area lacks sufficient access to high-speed broadband to support rural economic development," partly to encourage young people to stay in rural areas, Ellis notes.

For example, Kansas' Rural Telephone Service "received more than $100 million in grants and loans to bring broadband to unserved communities in northwestern Kansas," Ellis reports. "The company used some of the money to expand in Hays, which already had service providers. By establishing a presence in Hays, [CEO Larry] Sevier says, the company had access to a customer pool that will enable it to pay back its loans and reach communities without service." (Read more)

Baptist divinity-school dean: Mountaintop-removal coal mining 'is just plain wrong'

The dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity tells his fellow Baptists in a column for Associated Baptist Press this week, "Some things are just plain wrong. And mountaintop removal (MTR) is just plain wrong. It may have approval from certain corporations; Congress, local municipalities and some mountain folk, but it is still just plain wrong. Indeed, MTR is fast becoming a ghastly symptom of what is wrong with America: an abiding loss of identity politically, economically, communally and spiritually."

Dean Bill Leonard, left, cites a senior thesis by "a son of Appalachia," Wake graduate student Greg Griffey; Uneven Ground, the recent book by renowned Appalachian historian Ron Eller about the region's economy since 1945; and the 1995 book Appalachian Mountain Religion by Deborah McCauley, who wrote: "The mountainous terrain that is the Appalachian region has had enormous impact on its character, its texture, and its religious values."

Leonard writes, "Building on the work of Eller and McCauley, Greg Griffey insists that: 'By destroying the mountainous landscape of a geographical region formed millions of years ago, we are now effacing, and thereby choosing to forget, storied identities that have beckoned habitation, provided navigation through space, and evoked senses of rootedness in the mountains for thousands of years.' . . . These studies suggest that a dramatic symbol of the loss of American regional and religious identity is found in the environment." (Read more)

Leonard and Eller, a history professor at the University of Kentucky, are members of the national advisory board of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which is based at UK and publishes The Rural Blog.

Protestant pastors increasingly skpetical of global warming and human cause, along red-blue lines

"Sixty percent of Protestant pastors disagree that global warming is real and man-made," contrary to a "strong scientific consensus," and "All the usual red-blue divides apply," Courier-Journal religion reporter Peter Smith writes in his "Faith and Works" column for the Louisville newspaper. The numbers from LifeWay Research show more skepticism about global warming than the last time the firm asked the question, in 2008, it said in a news release.

LifeWay is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, but its results "echo other polling," Smith reports. "Evangelicals, Republicans, pastors in the South and those with lower educations are more likely to be skeptical of warming being man-made. . . . Pastors in mainline congregations, which tend to be more liberal, tend to believe in man-made warming, as do Democrats and those in the Northeast." (Read more)

Tornadoes may have wiped out one-quarter of poultry houses in Alabama, state officials say

"Alabama officials estimated that up to 25 percent of the poultry houses in the state were destroyed or damaged Wednesday by the tornado outbreak, likely killing millions of birds," Scott Kilman reports for The Wall Street Journal reports. "Preliminary reports indicate that about 200 poultry houses were destroyed and another 180 were damaged by the fierce storms."

Alabama is the third-ranking producer of chicken, behind Arkansas and Georgia. State officials "were having a difficult time gauging the damage because many rural roads were impassable Thursday," Scott Kilman writes. "Likewise, electric power was out and telephone systems were down in many areas." (Read more)

Preachers who cite war, famine and quakes as signs of the apocalypse have their facts wrong

Last week, on the Easter edition of ABC's "This Week," the Rev. Franklin Graham said "I believe we are in the latter days of this age" because "The things that the Bible predicts, earthquakes and famines, nation rising against nation, we see this happening with more frequency and more intensity." We've heard similar statements for more than 40 years from some rural preachers.

The preachers are wrong, says FactCheck.org, the nonpartisan service of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania: "Today’s famines and armed conflicts are fewer and relatively smaller than those in the last century, and the frequency of major earthquakes has remained about the same." (Read more)

Had lots of rain lately? Drink well water? Test it!

If you drink water from a well and your weather has been unusually wet lately, it's a good time to get your water tested, because saturated soil “loses its ability, or its ability is reduced, to remove pollutants,” says Karen Mancl, a professor in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering at The Ohio State University.

“The soil is one of the really important tools that we use in rural areas to protect our ground water from contamination,” Mancl says. “You should test your water for bacteria, for pH, for nitrate and for total dissolved solids, those are the four things I recommend people test their well for annually.”

Mancl has more information, including publications at her Soil Environment Technology Learning website. For a five-minute interview with Mancl, from Brownfield Network, click here. As luck would have it, May 1-7 is Drinking Water Week.

Deal on puppy-mill law, which pit Mo. urbanites against rural animal owners, takes effect

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed a compromise concerning the state's puppy mill referendum into law on Wednesday. Last week we reported the battle over the referendum on Proposition B had largely been divided on rural-urban lines. Nixon actually signed two bills into law; SB 113 substantially watered down the restrictions enacted by voters last fall, and SB 161, contained compromise language brokered by Nixon.
"Nixon downplayed the initial bill signing on Wednesday, but was effusive in his praise for the final bill," Jason Noble of The Kansas City Star reports. The governor said, "At a time in which people spend a lot of their time figuring out the easiest way to disagree, everybody here gave up a little to make sure we found ways to agree. That’s really, really important."
Proposition B "enacted strict new regulations on the state’s dog breeders, including a limit on the number of breeding dogs, requirements for greater animal enclosures and access to the outdoors, stronger veterinary oversight and criminal penalties for violations," Noble writes. SB 113 was passed under pressure from agriculture groups and removed Prop B's strictest elements. "The compromise legislation, SB 161, puts no limits on the number of dogs, but boosts requirements for veterinary care at breeding operations and phases in larger space requirements for animal enclosures." (Read more)

Vilsack: Environmental-justice interests should pay more attention to rural America

Rural areas are too often overlooked in conversations about environmental justice, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said at the State of Environmental Justice conference in Atlanta Thursday. "Environmental justice is generally defined as the concern that certain communities, especially those with large minority populations, are more likely to be exposed to environmental perils than wealthier and whiter areas," John McArdle and Emily Yehle of Environment and Energy Daily reports. "But often the highest profile battles on that issue are waged in at-risk neighborhoods in major cities or at Superfund sites located near populated urban and suburban areas."

"If anything, I don't think people understand the scope of environmental justice," Vilsack said in an interview after his speech. He said rural issues are overlooked because 84 percent of Americans live in cities and suburbs. "We don't want to forget those 16 percent" in rural communities, he said. The Department of Agriculture has funded 2,575 clean water projects in the last two years to address problems ranging from wastewater treatment to sewage treatment, Vilsack said.

"That tells me there is extraordinary need in rural America for clean water," he told the reporters. "That's all about environment and it's clearly about justice because if you don't have clean water, you don't have economic opportunity and that's so often forgotten." Like many federal programs the Obama administration's efforts to address environmental justice are complicated by the budget situation, Vilsack said. "There is still going to be money in these [environmental justice] programs and the challenge will be for us to make sure that we properly prioritize," he said. (Read more, subscription required)

National Rural Assembly is June 28-30 in St. Paul

Registration is open for the 2011 National Rural Assembly, scheduled for June 28-30 in St. Paul, Minn. The Assembly has identified several objectives: Articulate a message that raises national awareness of rural issues; raise a call to action for assembly members around the issues identified in the Rural Compact; provide opportunities for action planning on rural policy issues; create opportunities for participants to make connections that will forward their work on policy issues; and educate policymakers and other leaders on issues prevalent in rural policy.

The event will include several work sessions, which will "provide participants with the opportunity to go deep and build a set of recommendations that will then be carried forward to policymakers by the Rural Assembly in the coming year," the assembly says in a news release. Session topics include housing, climate change, tribal issues, philanthropy, immigration, the Farm Bill, youth policy and rural education grants, Social Security and green jobs. Registration costs $150, and participants are expected to pay for their own travel and lodging expenses. Meals are included in the registration fee. You can register for the event here.

Project to improve rural high schools in New England to be focus of free webinar May 11

A project from the Plymouth, Mass., School District and the Center for Secondary School Redesign will be the subject of the next Rural School Innovations Webinar from the Rural School and Community Trust. The project, the New England Network for Personalization and Performance (NETWORK), "envisions a redesigned rural high school where learning happens anytime, anyplace, and where students demonstrate their learning through complex, rigorous performance assessments," RSCT says in a news release. The free webinar is scheduled for May 11.

NETWORK "builds on very innovative work that has been accomplished in a number of rural schools in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont that have implemented performance-based initiatives," RSCT writes. Three representatives of rural New Hampshire school districts will speak during the webinar: Chris Geraghty, a teacher at Kearsarge High School; Steve Beals, principal at Laconia High School; and John Freeman, a superintendent from Pittsfield, N. H. You can register for the event here.

W.Va. environmental officials at odds over water-conductivity standards for mountaintop mines

West Virginia environmental regulators are at odds over how to implement water conductivity standards to limit pollution from mountaintop-removal coal mining. "The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is appealing in court a decision by the state's Environmental Quality Board ordering the agency to modify its permit for a Patriot Mining Company Inc. strip mining project in Monongalia County," Manuel Quinones of Environment and Energy News reports. "In issuing its decision, the board sided, at least in part, with environmentalists who urged permit modifications, including a numeric standard for conductivity in nearby waterways."

The controversy comes as the White House is reviewing the Environmental Protection Agency's interim conductivity standard. The West Virginia board did not grant environmentalists' request to establish a conductivity standard, but told state regulators to include a specific standard in a revised permit for the Patriot mine. "This particular permit had no limits on conductivity, sulfates, really not much of anything," Petra Wood, a Sierra Club member involved in appealing the permit, told Quinones. You can read our report about the federal conductivity standard here. "DEP believes the board overstepped its legal bounds by mandating a conductivity standard," Quinones writes. (Read more, Subscription required)

New administration in Pa. forsakes local blowout team for Texas crew, and water gets polluted

Texas-based emergency response teams took more than 10 hours to respond to two gas well blowouts in Pennsylvania last year, so John Hanger, then secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, announced "that Texas-based CUDD Well Control would open a new facility in Bradford County and that 16 specially trained responders would be able to reach any well in Pennsylvania in five hours or so," Nicholas Kusnetz of ProPublica reports. After a January blowout, the new crew was on site and had the well under control in less than four hours.

But when a Chesapeake Energy team lost control of a well on April 19, the company called Texas emergency teams that did not arrive on the scene for more than 13 hours. By then "brine water and hydraulic fracturing fluids from the well had spewed across nearby fields and into a creek," Kusnetz writes. Where was the Pennsylvania team? Dennis Corley, CUDD's vice-president, says he offered Chesapeake the team's services but was told the company was already under contract with another emergency responder.

Under a new administration since January, the state DEP did not request CUDD's assistance, and DEP Secretary Michael Krancer did not respond to phone calls and emails from ProPublica for comment. Hanger said the state's agreement with CUDD was still in effect when he left office. The agreement "was put in place to make sure it was a matter of a few hours" before help arrived, he told Kusnetz. "That was the point." (Read more)

Bug causing stink for mid-Atlantic farmers

Stinkbugs plaguing the mid-Atlantic region and are causing major trouble for the region's farmers. The bugs "take their long needle-like mouthpiece and stick it into the flesh of fruits and vegetables, leaving them bruised and disfigured," Sabri Ben-Achour of National Public Radio reports. Bob Black, who runs Catoctin Mountain Orchard in Thurmont, Md., said half of one apple variety was damaged: "I can handle a few percent, but gets up to 25 percent, 50 percent — that's pretty devastating to me." (USDA photo by Jeff Wildonger)

"They're now found in more than 30 states, as far west as Washington and California; as far south as Florida they've been detected," said Mike Raup, an entomologist at the University of Maryland. "But right here in the mid-Atlantic region — this is ground zero for the brown marmorated stink bug." Pesticides have had little effect on the bugs. This year's invasion is projected to be even worse than last year's, leaving farmers to look for new solutions.

The bugs were introduced in Allentown, Pa., in the 1990s from Asia, but their natural predators did not come with them. At a U.S. Department of Agriculture lab in Newark, Del., researchers are working on a way to introduce one of the bug's natural predators. The most likely candidate is the Trissolcus wasp, which does not bite or sting, and is the natural nemesis of the brown marmorated stink bug in Asia, Ben-Achour writes. The wasps depend on finding the stink bugs and their eggs to survive. "If they can't find stink bugs or stink bug eggs to lay their own eggs in, they'll die. They can't survive on anything else," entomologist Kim Hoelmer told Ben-Achour. Hoelmer says it will take three years to determine if the wasps are not a threat to the other 300 types of stink bugs in the U.S., so farmers in seven states are asking the Environmental Protection Agency to relax pesticide regulations in the meantime. (Read more)

County considers fines to discourage dumping, mistreatment of unwanted horses

At least one rural county is considering anordinance to control escaped or released farm animals, some of which appear to be horses loosely abandoned by their owners or dumped by owners who are no longer willing or able to care for them.

Under the proposed ordinance, Lincoln County could fines owners of animals bothering public or private property and charge for the capture, feed and medical care of roaming animals, Michael Broihier of The Interior Journal in Stanford reports. (Dickinson Press photo by Bess Davis)

In response to concerns raised at a county Fiscal Court meeting by the Lincoln County Cattlemen's Association, County Attorney Daryl Day said "This ordinance will cover everything but cattle. . . We want to put everyone else on equal footing with cattle farmers." State law covers nothing but cattle, Broihier writes.

Day said the county was trying to specifically address horses running loose on a local road, the Interior Journal reports. Sheriff Curt Folger told Broihier, "The problem wasn't only horse owners refusing to restrain their animals, but a lot of horses were being dumped in rural areas." (Read more)

Delinquent penalties for mine-safety violations remain a problem for the industry and the feds

Coal and other mining companies delinquent in paying penalties are a problem for the Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Treasury Department. MSHA had "16,438 penalty cases with $56 million in unpaid, delinquent penalties on Feb. 25, 2011 by operators, contractors and individuals," Mine Safety and Health News reports.

This one-day snapshot does not include the most recent payments or delinquencies because MSHA "may have a one month to six week 'lag time' for entering payments into the system," the newsletter reports. But the snapshot "does show a pattern of delinquent payments for some of the biggest companies operating in the U.S." On Feb. 25, Consol Energy, Massey Energy, James C. Justice II, Arch Coal, LaFarge, Yukon Nevada Gold Corp., Cemex SA and one controller with both coal and metal/nonmetal mines had more than $200,000 in delinquent penalties.

In an effort "to make it easier for agencies to collect civil penalties, in 2000 the Treasury introduced the Debt Collection Act that uses letters, phone calls, private collection agencies and the Internal Revenue Service to collect delinquent penalties, but it is still unclear how the government can force companies to pay delinquent penalties. The Mine Safety and Health News authors believe the Robert C. Byrd Mine and Workplace Safety and Health Act, rejected in Congress last year but reintroduced in the Senate this year, "would force operators to pay in a timely manner. . . because after 180 days, MSHA would have the authority to withdraw miners from the mine with the delinquency until a payment plan is in place."

Mine Safety and Health News is a subscription-only newsletter, but it has made this part of its current edition available for free. For its detailed, comprehensive report, click here.

Oklahoma weekly sees a rash of open-meeting violations, takes stand for open government

A free weekly newspaper in Oklahoma is holding local government leaders accountable for alleged violations of the state's open-meetings law. "Transparency and openness in government are key, which makes it that much more important to hold elected leaders’ feet to the fire so to say," writes William Swaim, the executive editor of the Broken Arrow Ledger. "And maybe even more importantly, for district attorneys or the attorney general to hold these officials accountable for their transgressions." Swaim and the newspaper allege the Manford Public School Board, the Broken Arrow Public School Board and Wagner County commissioners each recently violated the state Open Meeting Act.

When Manford board members closed their doors to talk about a specific employee, instead of identifying that employee they provided a list of all the school system's employees, saying any of them could be discussed. The Broken Arrow board says it only discussed administration organization at a recent closed meeting, not specific employees, and "provided a list of 43 titles on an organizational chart and discussed employees whose titles were listed on the chart," Swaim writes. Joey Senat, a journalism professor at Oklahoma State University, told the Ledger the Broken Arrow board was in violation of the law even if it did not discuss specific employees.

In addition to the two school-board meetings, Swaim says the Opening Meeting Act was violated when three Wagoner County commissioners recently met at least three times to discuss county business without providing proper notice of the meeting. "You might be saying to yourself, why so much concern over these violations?" Swaim writes. "The public deserves an open and transparent government, and one that is accountable to the public. It’s a matter of trust. Secrecy breeds mistrust." (Read more)

Anti-fracking sentiment spreads to Texas

Texas may have seemed immune from the most vocal protests surrounding hydraulic fracturing, but that may be changing. Last week "several dozen protesters marched through downtown Fort Worth, waving signs and chanting anti-drilling slogans that reflected concern over air and water pollution," Kate Galbraith of The Texas Tribune reports for The New York Times. Fracking, which has been used for decades but only recently to access natural gas in deep shale formations, is common in Texas's Barnett Shale. (Texas Tribune photo by Stuart Palley)

"The protest, organized by the group Rising Tide North Texas, is the latest sign of a backlash against drilling in Texas," Galbraith writes. A few Texas communities have imposed moratoriums on drilling permits and yard signs saying "Get the Frack Out of Here" and "Protect Our Kids/No Drilling" have popped up in at least one community. "Dallas set up a task force last week to examine drilling regulations within its city limits," Galbraith writes.

Analysts say the new discontent in Texas is likely a result of highly publicized fracking concerns in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania and New York. Mike Slattery, the director of the Institute for Environmental Studies at Texas Christian University, also notes that lease payments by gas companies have dropped significantly in Texas since natural gas prices hit highs in 2008. Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for drilling company Range Resources, said the industry needs to be more responsive to public concerns. "For the most part, I would view these as self-inflicted wounds," he told Galbraith. (Read more)

Fracking chemicals are less of a secret now, thanks to groups' and agencies' initiatives

Much of the ongoing controversy surrounding hydraulic fracturing for natural gas has centered on secrecy of the chemicals used by drilling companies. Limited voluntary and some mandatory state disclosure has revealed some of the chemicals. "In an effort to increase transparency, a new website called FracFocus provides some limited information on substances used in specific wells," the Society of Environmental Journalists reports in its most recent "Tip Sheet." The site includes information voluntarily supplied by some companies with fracking operations.

The site, developed by the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, "can provide one starting point for your coverage of this angle," SEJ writes. Another valuable resource for fracking reporting is a report on April 16 from House Democrats that identifies 750 substances used from 2005-2009 in fracking operations. Additional disclosure information can be obtained from new programs initiated by the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in 2010 and the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission in 2011, SEJ says. (Read more)

Closures of rural maternity wards leave expectant mothers with few options

Rural women may be facing a shortage of adequate, accessible maternity care as more rural hospitals across the country close their maternity wards. In Hyden, Ky., Mary Breckinridge Hospital, named for the woman who helped bring the midwifery model of care to the U.S., closed its ward last year. "The hospital cited poor reimbursement from Medicaid, large malpractice insurance premiums for maternity care providers, and fewer births," Kelli B. Haywood reports for the Daily Yonder. Virginia, Ohio and Alabama also have seen maternity ward closures in recent months. (Haywood photo: Jaxon Shell at Mary Breckinridge Hospital)

"While there may be fewer births in some rural areas, it must be recognized that these areas are still underserved when it comes to maternity care," Haywood writes. The Center for Rural Health, a unit of the University of Kentucky, reports just seven obstetricians serve every 100,000 rural Kentuckians. In the state's urban areas the ratio is 11 to 100,000. Due to this disparity, "Rural women will face added problems and expense of transportation and child care if they hope to receive prenatal care," Haywood writes. "These costs could be high enough that some rural women, especially those who either are uninsured or who rely on government assistance for proper maternity care, would not be able to obtain it."

Research suggests medical intervention, like inducing labor or performing Cesarean surgery, is more common during births at rural hospitals where providers feel pressure from high patient loads. Haywood concludes, "Rather than fighting to keep a system that is not benefiting rural women, health care providers, or state governments, we need new models of care and ways in which that care can be obtained safely, close to home." (Read more)