Safety concerns keeping commercial drone operators from going about their business

The future has arrived in a stirring debate of controversy. Drones offer a cheaper, easier and more productive way to conduct many businesses—from agriculture to journalism to the film industry to fighting fires to dozens of other areas. (Air Dog photo)

But safety concerns have put the future of commercial drone use in the hands of the Federal Aviation Administration, which has a Sept. 30, 2015 deadline to set rules for commercial use. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled last month that drones are aircraft and are subject to existing aviation laws. Until FAA rules are put in place, most commercial use of drones remains illegal.

"If the rules are reasonable, more than 70,000 jobs could be created within three years, says Mario Mairena, head of government relations for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, reports The Economist. The organization believes that "commercial benefits from drones for the American economy are worth more than $10 billion a year."

The problem is that many commercial operators have grown impatient waiting for official rules and have flown drones whenever and wherever they liked, which has led to crashes and several near misses, Gregory A. Hall reports for The Courier Journal in Louisville. 

FAA "released statistics to several media outlets in recent weeks in response to public records requests that showed a report of pilots seeing drones roughly daily during an almost-six-month period beginning June 1," Hall writes. "Using that data, The Washington Post calculated 25 near misses."

University of Louisville assistant professor Adrian Lauf told Hall that near-collisions are "definitely on the increase and there are a lot of people that now have access to these aircraft. Not as many of them are smart about it, and they don't realize the consequences. And that's perhaps one of the reasons why the FAA's probably going to require a pilot's license. . . . they have no other way of verifying that a UAV pilot has the knowledge of how airspace has to be handled."

One solution is to create more collision-avoidance technology, reports The Economist. "Passenger aircraft carry transponders that relay their position to ground radar. But an aircraft-type transponder would be too heavy for many small drones to carry, and with plastic or styrofoam airframes, they might not be detected with radar."

GPS-based devices that are part of a system called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast could be the answer, reports The Economist. "These devices repeatedly broadcast not just the aircraft’s position but other data, including its flight path. They also receive similar co-ordinates from any nearby aircraft. ADS-B is part of a new generation of air-traffic management being installed in America, Europe and elsewhere."

Another Republican governor comes out in favor of Obamacare since the midterm elections

In the six weeks since Republicans gained control of Congress, three Republican governors who refused to expand Medicaid in their states under federal health reform have now come out in favor of expansion but with a few twists thrown in, Jason Millman reports for The Washington Post. On Monday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam joined Gov. Matt Mead of Wyoming and Gov. Gary Herbert of Utah in support of expansion.

"Like most other Republican governors who want to take the health-care law's generous federal funding, Haslam is now offering a plan that deviates from the Medicaid expansion envisioned under the Affordable Care Act," Millman writes. "Haslam, who made the announcement almost a month after his re-election, said the Obama administration has verbally approved the approach." (Associated Press photo by Mark Humphrey: Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Monday offered a plan to accept Obamacare funding)

The Tennessee plan includes a two-year waiver program with two tracks, Millman writes. "It will offer vouchers to people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level—or about $16,100 for an individual—to help purchase employer coverage they would otherwise struggle to afford. Other newly eligible individuals can sign up in health plans modeled after health reimbursement accounts, with people earning above the poverty level required to pay premiums and copays. Haslam's administration didn't immediately offer details about how those payments are structured."

In November the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that Tennessee has "about 142,000 low-income adults fall into what's known as the coverage gap—people who earn too much to qualify for the existing Medicaid program but not enough to qualify for subsidies to purchase private coverage on the Obamacare health insurance marketplaces," Millman writes.

"Nine Republican governors have expanded Medicaid so far, while Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is still negotiating with the feds on leveraging an existing state program to expand coverage," Millman writes. (Read more)

One of the nation's poorest school districts leads a discussion about innovation in education

By Melissa Landon
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

BOONEVILLE, Ky. — School administrators and teachers from several Kentucky counties gathered in Owsley County (Wikipedia map), perhaps the nation's poorest, on Monday, Dec. 15, to discuss innovation in education. The school district was recently inducted into the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools. "Poverty means every child in this district has a reason to fail, but that is just not going to happen," said County School Supt. Tim Bobrowski.

Attendees discussed topics such as use of snow days, technology in the classroom, farm-to-table programs and college readiness. The two most important discussions were on efforts to close the achievement gap, and the Snowbound Project — an effort to make up for snow days through online learning instead of through extra school days at the end of the year.

Students have from Dec. 1 to March 1 to complete online work that replaces up to 10 snow days. They earn 0.25 credits for the work. Jennifer Hall, an Owsley County High School science teacher, said students need to be taught how to use the Blackboard program used for the courses, and teachers need to provide free PowerPoint downloads and post PDFs rather than Word documents because some students may not have access to those computer programs.

Adam Holmes, an Owsley High graduate now in college, said the Snowbound Project helped him because he uses Blackboard in college to check grades, keep up with assignments and communicate with professors. Supt. Bobrowski said school officials want students to be innovative and creative, so they must have good Internet access.

Teachers don't just use the online resources for snow-day assignments. Hall said she puts extra assignments and explanations on Blackboard to help students who are having trouble with lessons in the classroom. Jason Hall, a sixth-grade teacher, creates educational videos to help his students learn math concepts. He is also learning how to use Google Docs for his lessons.

Judy Cheatham, vice president of literacy services for Reading is Fundamental, said the key to closing the achievement gap isn't technology, but books. She emphasized the importance of teaching children to love reading while they are still young so that it will become a habit. Also important to remember, she said, is that children of poor and middle-class parents do not hear as many high-level vocabulary words as children of upper-class people hear.

Stacey Davidson, instructional supervisor at the school, talked about the Owsley Summer Reading Project, an initiative designed to prevent students from losing knowledge over the summer and learn to love reading. The program provided 109 middle-school students with eight books each over the summer. Students received books in the mail, with letters for the parents providing discussion questions. A before-and-after test showed that the reading scores of the students who participated in the program declined less than the scores of those who did not.

Secure Rural Schools not included in spending bill; funds rural schools in struggling timber areas

Funds for the Secure Rural Schools program could be coming to an end. The program, which provides funding for rural schools that have struggled to make up shortfalls because of declines in the timber industry, has awarded about $270 million to 729 counties this year, says a press release from the National Association of Counties, Tim Marema writes for the Daily Yonder. But the $1.1 trillion spending package that passed Saturday night does not include funds for the program, which was launched in 2000. Funds from the program also can be used for road maintenance.

"The loss of Secure Rural Schools funding will also affect the distribution of another federal program that is popular with local governments—Payments in Lieu of Taxes or PILT," Marema writes. "This program provides federal support to counties that contain large swaths of untaxed federal lands. Continued funding for PILT was included in the congressional spending package."

"But counties with National Forests are entitled to more PILT funding if the Secure Rural Schools funding isn't forthcoming, according to a press release from the National Association of Counties," Marema writes. "That means the rest of the counties that receive PILT will draw from a diminished funding pool." (Yonder map: Estimated payments that counties received from the Secure Rural Schools program in FY 2013. For an interactive version, click here)

Longtime mountaintop removal foe dies at 88

Photo by Loyal Jones Appalachian Center, Berea College

Daymon Morgan, a longtime activist against mountaintop removal in Central Appalachia, died Thursday at 88. In an email to The Rural Blog, Berea College Provost Chad Berry wrote, "He was a friend to many who were fighting for environmental justice in the coalfields and well beyond."

Leading Appalachian writer Silas House, like Morgan a native of southeastern Kentucky's Leslie County, wrote to the blog: "When I first met Daymon 10 years ago and heard him tell his own struggle of fighting big industry to protect his heritage and his land, I knew there was no turning back. In that moment I knew I had to join him in speaking out on the issue. Daymon never spoke in hyperbole or vitriol. He simply told the story of what was happening to his mountains and asked others to spread the word. In the 10 years since I have seen him touch numerous lives and pass this same responsibility onto them. He had a tremendous impact on the environmental justice movement in this country and I am so glad I had the privilege of spending time with him on his porch and on his mountain where he showed us medicinal plants and told old tales."

Molly Koeneman, a 2011 graduate of Western Kentucky University, featured Morgan in a story while a WKU student. "Daymon Morgan stood rooted to his land, offering silent reverence in a graveyard set off the side of a gravel path winding up the side of the mountain," Koeneman wrote. "Sunlight filtered through the trees and a gentle breeze rustled the early autumn leaves. These mountains raised Morgan, and in turn, his children. These mountains are home to him and his wife. These mountains are the resting place for his parents, and Morgan sees himself being laid to rest here someday." To read Morgan's obituary, click here.

Alpha agrees to reduce pollution in West Virginia streams affected by mountaintop removal

Alpha Natural Resources on Monday reached an agreement with citizen groups to "take steps to reduce water pollution so that the streams involved either meet a more detailed test of aquatic life health than currently used by state regulators or comply with a water quality measure of electrical conductivity designed by federal regulators," Ken Ward reports for the Charleston Gazette. In June a federal judge ruled that mountaintop removal from Alpha mines was having an adverse impact on nearby streams.

"The settlement, which must be reviewed and approved by U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers before it can take effect, gives Alpha until August 2019 to clean up pollution of Laurel Creek in Boone County and Robinson Fork in Nicholas County," Ward writes. (Read more)

Even if Republicans win the 'War on Coal' in U.S., the worldwide fight could be a losing battle

Although Republicans have vowed to save the U.S. coal industry by fighting the "War on Coal," they can't do much "to defend the industry against a growing international threat—the drying up of its once-promising markets overseas," Erica Martinson reports for Politico.

"Coal exports, which more than doubled from 2007 to 2012, are expected to fall by nearly one-fifth this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says," Martinson writes. "In 2015, the number of tons exported could hit its lowest level in five years. (Politico graphic)

Prices in Asian markets are plummeting, and cheaper coal is available in Indonesia and Australia, Martinson writes. "Meanwhile, a lot of U.S. coal can’t even get out of the country, thanks to greens’ success in blocking proposed export terminals in Washington state and Oregon. And China, the world’s most voracious coal customer, just pledged to cap its use of the fuel and is promising to curb its greenhouse gas pollution."

Even though the House $1.1 trillion spending deal "bars the Export-Import Bank from cutting off financing for coal-burning plants overseas," the future of coal exports remains murky, with developing nations agreeing in recent talks in Peru to voluntarily reduce carbon dioxide pollution.

"Meanwhile, the World Bank is backing away from funding coal projects, hedge funds are eyeing major U.S. coal companies as high-risk investments and the strong dollar is hampering the market for all kinds of exports," Martinson writes. "The oil train boom also burdens coal producers’ access to rail lines from Western mining hot spots like Wyoming and Montana."

"It’s sobering news for an industry already beset by EPA climate and pollution regulations that Republicans denounce as Obama’s 'War on Coal'—their rallying cry on the way to big victories in the midterm elections," Martinson writes. "And it’s a far stretch from the export-driven boom that coal supporters like House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton were expecting as recently as a year ago." Upton said in 2013, “All that is missing is the additional infrastructure to make expanded exports possible, and achieving our export potential would have the added benefit of creating thousands, tens of thousands, of new jobs." (Read more)

County-level map shows the percentage of men ages 25 to 64 who are unemployed

In the U.S., 16 percent of men between the ages of 25 to 54 are officially unemployed, triple the number of unemployed men since 1968, Gregory Aisch, Josh Katz and David Leonhardt report for The New York Times. County level data, taken from surveys from 2009 to 2013, show the percentage of unemployed men from 25 to 64, which is considered the prime working age.

The data lumps all out-of-work men in the same category, whether they are unemployed, disabled, discouraged, retired, in school, taking care of family or any other option.

In some metro and suburban areas—such as San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis, Boston and Manhattan—as well as the booming North Dakota oil towns, employment rates were above 90 percent, the Times reports. But in poorer, more rural areas, such as Appalachia, the Deep South, northern Michigan, the Southwest and the Northwest, more than 40 percent of prime-age men are not working. (Read more) (NYT map: In McKinely County, New Mexico 46 percent of men between 25 to 54 are unemployed. To view an interactive version of the map click here)

University of Kentucky program using stories to explore school's connection to Appalachia

The University of Kentucky is taking a look at the school's relationship with Central Appalachia through a project called “Rooted in Our Communities: The University of Kentucky in Appalachia."

Through a continuing series of stories on health, agriculture, food, workforce and economy, environment, arts and culture, education and energy, UK students, faculty and staff "will bring to life the significant challenges and even more promising opportunities that exist not only in Eastern Kentucky but throughout our commonwealth," writes UK president Eli Capilouto. (University of Kentucky photo: UK grad Kesley Sebastian returned to her rural Appalachian hometown to open a restaurant)

One story looks at an Eastern Kentucky women who studied business management at UK then returned home to open a downtown restaurant in Jackson, a town with a population of 2,100 and few downtown eateries.

Another story is a feature about Eastern Kentucky native Jasmine Newman, who studied cultural anthropology at UK and has used her skills in South Africa and Berea, Ky., where she did an internship with the New Opportunity School for Women, which works to improve the financial, educational and personal circumstances of low-income, middle-aged women in the Appalachian region. Newman said, "Doing these things in your own community gives you a greater appreciation of where you came from, what you're made of and what the people in your community are made of." (Read more)

Developing nations agree to climate deal, but compliance is on a voluntary basis

Early Sunday morning in Lima, Peru, officials from 196 countries agreed to voluntarily reduce fossil fuel emissions that are blamed for climate change, Coral Davenport reports for The New York Times. "But the driving force behind the new deal was not the threat of sanctions or other legal consequences. It was global peer pressure. And over the coming months, it will start to become evident whether the scrutiny of the rest of the world is enough to pressure world leaders to push through new global warming laws from New Delhi to Moscow or if, as a political force, international reproach is impotent."

As part of the deal, countries pledge to enact domestic laws to reduce emissions at home by March 31, 2015, Davenport writes. But the deal "does not include legally binding requirements that countries cut their emissions by any particular amount." That means that countries can put together weak plans that do little to nothing to help the environment, or they can refuse to submit a plan at all, without fear of punishment. (Global Carbon Project graphic)
The Obama administration "has pledged that U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions will be 26 to 28 percent lower in 2025 than they were in 2005," Brad Plumer reports for Vox. Meanwhile, the European Union plans to reduce its emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, and China also intends to stop its emissions from rising past 2030 or so—and plans to ramp up its share of renewable energy."

But since the reductions are voluntary, each country can choose to do whatever they want, Plumer writes. "The final Lima deal simply says that countries 'may include' detailed information on how and when they intend to cut emissions. (Or they may not.) There will be no formal assessment of each country's plans. All that will happen is that, in November 2015, the UN will tally up all the national pledges and estimate how they stack up to the broader goal of preventing more than 2°C of global warming. Otherwise, there's little monitoring or verification."

It all came down to a simple word change that softened requirements, Rebecca Leber reports for New Republic. "Now, most of the information for these plans will be voluntary, rather than mandatory, because the text says countries 'may' include detailed information, rather than 'shall.' At the core of the questions is whether the world will commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the century—crucial to limiting the worst effects of global warming. Other questions, like how countries plan to increase climate change financing to $100 billion annually, will be important to reaching a Paris agreement." (Read more) 

North Carolina-to-Japan pork pipeline quickly becoming state's top export

The fasting growing export from North Carolina is pork shipped to Japan, Andrew Curliss reports for the Raleigh News & Observer as part of a series called "High on the Hog." At the beginning of the 21st century, "the value of pork shipped from North Carolina to Japan was below $30 million a year in today’s dollars. It now tops $250 million."

"Late last year, in an unnoticed milestone in a decade-long trend, pork from North Carolina jumped ahead of tobacco as the state’s top direct export to Japan," Curliss writes. Overall, Japan "will buy about $2 billion in U.S. pork this year, making it far and away the No. 1 export market for American hog farmers." (Observer graphic: Meat exports out of North Carolina are catching up with tobacco exports)

The Japanese don't crave just any pork. Connoisseurs are looking for a specific taste and flavor—one that's silky, with a deeper color and fatter and sweeter, Curliss writes. That's where farmers like Bob and Ted Ivey come in. They "are part of a weekly race against time and circumstance to deliver the pork fresh—never frozen—from barns east of Raleigh to the world’s largest metropolis. It has become an unyielding effort to penetrate the demanding Japanese marketplace, where pork is consumed with a passion akin to North Carolinians and their barbecue."

"This pork-to-Japan pipeline is a prime example of how the global marketplace shapes North Carolina far beyond the potent Research Triangle Park," Curliss writes. "Today’s worldwide economy reaches places as basic and seemingly homebound as a hog barn in Eastern North Carolina."

Dermot J. Hayes, an expert on the pork economy and a professor at Iowa State University, told Curliss, “Japanese consumers are very finicky, very rich and they demand quality. So the people who export to Japan—they export a very high-value product. And that returns a lot of money.”

Read more here: http://highonthehog.nandoweb.net/#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://highonthehog.nandoweb.net/#storylink=cpy

For the Iveys, about 300 of their boars "will produce about 1.3 million market hogs this year in North Carolina," Curliss writes. "Of those, the cuts from about 200,000 will make it to Japan as Silky Pork." (Read more)

Read more here: http://highonthehog.nandoweb.net/#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://highonthehog.nandoweb.net/#storylink=cpy

Senate passes HR 83, preserving 6-day mail service

On Saturday the Senate passed HR 83. The measure does not include postal reform language, but it does ensure that 6-day mail services will continue through the end of September, Max Heath, chairman of the National Newspaper Association wrote in an email to The Rural Blog.

"The president has not yet posted a signing date, but he is expected to sign," Heath writes. "He has until Wednesday, which is when the previous short-term appropriations bill runs out."

Kentucky county is passing a local right-to-work law that could well be the first such local ordinance

A Southern Kentucky county believes it will be the first in the nation to pass a local "right to work" law, which prohibits union contracts that require workers to join a union or pay it fees.

The Warren County Fiscal Court, based in Bowling Green, approved the ordinance 5-1 on first reading Thursday and plans to give it final passage Dec. 19. The judge-executive of Simpson County, which separates Warren County from Tennessee, said its fiscal court will consider a similar ordinance at a meeting Tuesday.

It is unclear whether Kentucky counties have the power to pass such laws, and a spokeswoman for Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway said he would opine on the matter. Conway is a Democrat running for governor; Democrats generally oppose right-to-work laws because labor unions oppose them so strongly.

The ordinance would be the first local right-to-work law in the nation, says Jim Waters of the Bluegrass Institute, a free-market think tank based in Bowling Green. "Several other counties are ready to do the same," Waters writes. "Some of these counties are led by Democrats; some by Republicans. . . . Our plan is that if enough counties pass their own individual right-to-work ordinances, it will: (1) make it very difficult for opponents and (2) will ultimately force the state House political leadership to make Kentucky the 25th right-to-work state."

Former Bowling Green mayor Eldon Renaud, president of United Auto Workers Local 2164 at the General Motors Corvette plant in Bowling Green, "said he believes that the county’s ordinance is against state law and that right-to-work legislation would require a vote from the legislature," Katie Brandenburg of the Bowling Green Daily News reports.

'War on coal' gets cheers at climate-change talks; Kerry gets jeers from McConnell

A package of rules to limit greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-burning electric plants is "one of President Obama’s most contentious domestic decisions" but has turned the U.S. from "one of the world's worst actors" on the issue to a catalyst for what could be the first global agreement to cut the emissions blamed for climate change, reports Coral Davenport of The New York Times.

Davenport writes from Lima, Peru, where global negotiations about climate change are concluding: "American negotiators are being met with something wildly unfamiliar: cheers, applause, thanks and praise," because of Obama's "June announcement that he would use his executive authority to push through an aggressive set of regulations on coal-fired power plants. . . . The enthusiastic reception on climate issues comes a month after a historic announcement by the United States and China, the world’s two largest polluters, that they would jointly commit to cut their emissions."

Obama's plan "set off a firestorm of legal, political and legislative opposition at home," Davenport notes. "Critics have called it a 'war on coal' that could devastate the American economy. But in the arena of international climate change negotiations, it has fundamentally transformed the feeling toward his administration."

John Kerry, making the first appearance by a secretary of state at such talks, didn't mince words when talking about coal plants, saying, "We’re going to take a bunch of them out of commission." His former colleague in the Senate, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, says he will attack the proposed rules through appropriations bills. "Despite the new Republican majority in the Senate, it appears unlikely that Mr. McConnell will be able to summon the votes necessary to repeal Mr. Obama’s rules—a point that American negotiators are making repeatedly here," Davenport writes.

McConnell fired back in a press release: "He was not speaking for Congress, and when I am Senate majority leader in January, the international community will have no doubt about that. It will soon be very clear that Congress disagrees not only with the EPA’s unilateral actions but also with the Administration’s entire international crusade against coal jobs. . . . Given the change in management that’s coming to the Senate, overseas audiences may want to proceed with caution when it comes to Secretary Kerry’s recommendations and comments.”

Only in recent years has federal data begun to count female farm workers and owners

Women have long worked and owned farms, but until recently were rarely factored into key statistics released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Luke Runyon reports for Harvest Public Media. (Runyon photo: Mary Kraft owns Badger Creek Dairy outside Fort Morgan, Colo.) 

About one-third of U.S. farms are run by married couples, but many of those farms are considered to be run by men, Runyon writes. Sondra and Matt Pierce have been running a sugar beet farm in Colorado for years, with Matt working a regular 9-to-5 job in addition to farm duties, while Sondra works exclusively on the farm. Sondra told Runyon, "Technically, I don't own the farm. I mean, I just work on it. Most of the things we sell are always in his name."

It wasn't until 2002 that USDA "began collecting information—like gender and age—from more people on a family farm, not just from the person in charge," Runyon writes. "That's led to a broader picture of who does the farming in the U.S. Still, there are limits, and sociologists say expectations about what constitutes women's work on the farm can be slow to change."

"In 2002 about 27 percent of farmers were women," Runyon writes. "In 2012 that increased to more than 30 percent. The share of U.S. farms primarily operated by women has steadily increased over the past three decades, from 5 percent in 1978 to nearly 14 percent by 2012."

Julie Zimmerman, a rural sociologist at the University of Kentucky who studies how women's roles on the farm have changed over time, told Runyon, "Women have always worked in agriculture, historically. I think a key issue is whether or not it's counted. If you see working on your farm as being part of your role as the spouse or the wife, as helping out, then you might not even recognize it as being 'working on the farm,' even if you're doing it all the time." (Read more)

FCC to spend $3.9 billion to increase Internet access to rural and poor areas

The Federal Communications Commission agreed on Thursday to boost spending by 60 percent to $3.9 billion to bring high-speed Internet access to schools and libraries in poor or rural areas, reports The Washington Post. The move would probably increase phone bills by about $2 per year.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler "said he estimates that two-thirds of American schools still don’t have access to high-speed connections, which can affect a child’s ability to do homework, research college scholarships and acquire basic job skills," the Post reports. Wheeler said, “We are talking about a moral issue. The greatest responsibility—the greatest moral responsibility—that any generation has is the preparation of the next generation.”

In a press release, the FCC said: "Broadband for rural consumers that is supported by the Connect America Fund must deliver the same speeds that 99 percent of urban Americans enjoy. . . The FCC will now require companies receiving Connect America funding for fixed broadband to serve consumers with speeds of at least 10 Mbps for downloads and 1 Mbps for uploads. That is an increase reflecting marketplace and technological changes that have occurred since the FCC set its previous requirement of 4 Mbps/1 Mbps speeds in 2011." (Read more)

University of Missouri journalism students hit the road to experience rural America firsthand

Students at the Missouri School of Journalism undertook a massive project to emulate the 14,000-mile journey on back roads and through off-the-beaten-path towns that author William Least Heat-Moon detailed in his 1982 book Blue Highways. Following in his footsteps, 12 students in teams of two traveled through rural Missouri in a grand circle around Columbia. Their journeys are recorded in Vox Magazine, which is published by the Columbia Missourian. (Mary Kaleta photo: The Union Covered Bridge in Monroe Countu)

"I was going with a goal to discover something bigger than myself," writes Tess Hart, who along with Mary Kaleta headed northeast out of Columbia. "We had no big destination. Today we were going small—to the little towns that dotted the map. I glanced at the big paper map spread out across Mary’s lap, and Mexico, Mo., jumped off the page. I turned north and let the weight of my right foot press a little harder on the pedal."

Niki Kottman and Jenna Fear traveled to the southeast, where they ended up in New Florence, a town with a population of 750, and where "entertainment comes in the form of looking out windows and hoping for something new to happen," Fear writes.

But in a small town, finding help after getting the car stuck in a ditch turned out to be no problem at all, Fear writes. "A woman stepped onto her porch. She’d been watching us through the window. She’d called the city workers to help, she said, but they were busy filling potholes. She walked us to the neighbor’s house. The neighbor called someone, and soon enough a big white truck rounded the corner and pulled up to my sad little car. He pulled us right out. We gave thanks, equally impressed and surprised by the kindness of these strangers."

Carson Kohler and Alexa Ahern headed south, ending up in Tuscumbia, Mo., looking for a fishing hole they couldn't find. "We took our time on the way back to what we called the 'main road,'" Kohler writes. "Crunching slowly along the gravel road, I turned to see a driveway with scatters of chickens. I gasped and pointed and realized I was pointing at a woman. She looked up and stared. My Florida license plate gave us away. We stopped, and Alexa convinced me that we needed to talk to her." (Alexa Ahern photo: Earl McDowell stands in front of 42 Swap Shop, an antique store in Brumley)

"A welcome party of about nine dogs ran toward us before we reached the driveway," Kohler writes. "The first few words exchanged were awkward. The inflection of her voice seemed as if she were asking, 'Why are you here?' But, channelling our inner William Least Heat-Moon, we asked about a good place to eat. From there, the conversation unfolded."

"Her name was Vickie Burrows, which we didn’t find out until the end of our hour-long visit," Kohler writes. "She told us about her family. Her ancestors lived in this area and owned the farm. Her older sons helped run the land they left behind. She lives with her daughter, 16, who is in a 'complicated' stage of her life. Vickie even told us about her husband’s passing in March after his long battle with cancer and how her farm hit highs and lows during his illness. I felt as though I could have talked to Vickie all day, but we had to leave, so Alexa and I left Vickie to her chores. We continued on."

Students also traveled west, southwest and north. Their instructor was Sara Shipley Hiles.

Rural counties continue to experience job growth

Rural America continues to add more jobs. From October 2013 to October 2014, rural areas added 428,000 jobs—a 2.1 percent increase—and a significant increase over numbers from September 2013 to September 2014 when rural areas added 208,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bill Bishop reports for the Daily Yonder. From October 2013 to October 2014, metro areas added 3.4 million jobs, an increase of 2.7 percent.

"The unemployment rate in rural counties, however, dropped below the rate in the cities," Bishop writes. The rate in rural counties with small cities—between 10,000 and 50,000 residents—was 5.3 percent, and it was 5.5 percent in rural counties with no town larger than 10,000 people, Bishop writes. The rate in metro areas was 5.6 percent. (For an interactive version of this Yonder map, click here)

Webinar for journalists to address ACA's employer requirements that go into effect Jan. 1

The Kaiser Family Foundation is hosting a webinar for journalists from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. (EDT) on Dec. 18 about how federal health reform's employer requirements affect businesses and workers. On Jan. 1, 2015, larger employers will be required to offer coverage to their workers or face penalties. The webinar will address how the penalties work, what options employers have to comply with the requirement, how provisions will affect coverage and costs for employers and workers as well as the implications of the King vs. Burwell case recently taken up by the Supreme Court.

After a brief presentation by Gary Claxton and Larry Levitt, co-executive directors for the Kaiser Family Foundation's Program for the Study of Health Reform and Private Insurance, there will be a question and answer period. To register for the event, click here.

Rural residents living near a metro core city are more likely to experience better mental health

People who live in rural counties adjacent to a metro core have higher rates of happiness, says a study by researchers at Penn State University published online in Social Indicators Research.

"Educational attainment, employment opportunities including self-employment and social capital have important benefits in terms of community mental health," the study's authors wrote. "For policymakers concerned about reducing the average number of poor mental health days across the nation, our results suggest that reducing poverty is a more powerful strategy than reducing income inequality."

For the study, "researchers correlated mental health with a number of environmental factors," Tim Marema reports for the Daily Yonder. "In addition to tracking the rural and urban status of the counties, they also looked at poverty rates, income levels, weather-related data like number of days of sunshine and other climate information and whether the counties had experienced droughts or other natural disasters."

The study found that residents of large, core, urban areas were more likely to have more mentally unhealthy days per capita, while the number of mentally unhealthy days dropped in counties outside those cities, Marema writes. "A high-water mark of happiness attributable to geography occurred in counties that were rural but adjacent to metropolitan counties." (Read more) (Yonder map)