Newspapers must use mobile platforms to preserve their voices in their communities, experts say

Newspaper publishers "need to follow their readers" to mobile devices "if they want to preserve their newspaper’s voice in the community," Paula Seligson of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association reports from a conference, “From Disruption to Transformation: New Strategies for Prosperity in a Digital Age,” this week at the University of North Carolina.

"Multiple presenters echoed the same theme, that the industry has seen a watershed moment toward mobile," Seligson writes. "Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, and Robyn Tomlin, vice president of digital and communications at the Pew Research Center, presented complementing research that showcased the rapid changes in reader behavior."

Tomlin said 39 of the 50 top digital news sites examined in Pew's 2015 "State of the Media" report get more traffic from mobile devices than from desktop computers. "Rosenstiel said this means newspapers need to be cross-platform: 'You don’t have a ‘print audience’ or a ‘mobile audience'."

UNC's Penny Abernathy, author of Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability, said the changes in readers' behavior force publishers to consider “what it means to serve our advertisers in this new world.” For SNPA's list of takeaways valued by publishers at the conference, click here.

Critics: EPA tinkered with public comments on proposed water rule that farm lobbies oppose

Critics of the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed water rules say the agency manipulated its public comments to produce a favorable response, Eric Lipton and Coral Davenport report for The New York Times.

EPA chief Gina McCarthy "told a Senate committee in March that the agency had received more than one million comments and nearly 90 percent favored the agency’s proposal," Lipton and Davenport write. McCarthy is expected to cite those comments to justify the final rule, which is expected today or next week. But critics say EPA violated federal law that prohibits agencies to "promote government policy or to support or oppose pending legislation."

EPA last year "sponsored a drive on Facebook and Twitter to promote its proposed clean water rule in conjunction with the Sierra Club," Lipton and Davenport write. "At the same time, Organizing for Action, a grass-roots group with deep ties to (President) Obama, was also pushing the rule. They urged the public to flood the agency with positive comments to counter opposition from farming and industry groups. The results were then offered as proof that the proposal was popular."

The rule has led to mass confusion, with Republicans and farmers saying it will expand EPA jurisdiction. EPA says that's not true and rules are meant to to tighten the definitions of ditches, tributaries and farm-field erosional features to narrow what areas fall under the law's jurisdiction.

Part of the confusion lies in the history of the rules, Davenport writes in another article for the Times. "The rule is being issued under the 1972 Clean Water Act, which gave the federal government broad authority to limit pollution in major water bodies, like Chesapeake Bay, the Mississippi River and Puget Sound, as well as streams and wetlands that drain into larger waters."

"But two Supreme Court decisions related to clean water protection, in 2001 and in 2006, created legal confusion about whether the federal government had the authority to regulate the smaller streams and headwaters, and about other water sources such as wetlands," Davenport writes. "EPA officials say the new rule will clarify that authority, allowing the government to once again limit pollution in those smaller bodies of water—although it does not restore the full scope of regulatory authority granted by the 1972 law."

"EPA also contends that the new rule will not give it the authority to regulate additional waters that had not been covered under the 1972 law," Davenport writes. "People familiar with the rule say it will apply to about 60 percent of the nation’s waters."

"Farmers fear that the rule could impose major new costs and burdens, requiring them to pay fees for environmental assessments and to obtain permits just to till the soil near gullies, ditches or dry streambeds where water flows only when it rains," Davenport writes. "A permit is required for any activity, like farming or construction, that creates a discharge into a body of water covered under the Clean Water Act or affects the health of it, like filling in a wetland or blocking a stream." (Read more)

Postal Service should report quality of rural mail service, National Newspaper Association says

Letters have been taking longer to arrive, especially in rural areas. To help address the disparity, National Newspaper Association CEO Tonda F. Rush said at a May 19 roundtable discussion hosted by a Senate committee, Congress should require the U.S. Postal Service to report the quality of mail service in rural areas. NNA Postal Committee Chair Max Health said he and the other postal executives are open to discussion about how rural mail delivery can be improved.

"The Postal Service took a radical step when it began closing down the processing operations in smaller cities and moved them to the heart of urban America," said NNA President John Edgecombe, Jr., who publishes The Nebraska Signal in Geneva, Neb. "NNA is taking every possible step to get USPS to address the problems created by these closings."

Rush said that USPS provides reports about how well it meets its service standards, but most of the information is about urban mail. However, the USPS did report slow service during the first quarter of 2015 for First-Class Mail that should have reached its destination in three days. In many places, that standard was only reached in 60 percent of cases. The Postal Service blamed the weather across the country. Sen. Jon Tester, D-MT said, "There was bad weather in the Northeast, but in Montana, we were in shirt sleeves. There is always going to be bad weather somewhere."

For a 7 mb PDF of NNA's PowerPoint presentation to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, click here.

Murray Energy to lay off 1,800 coal workers; Alpha Natural Resources shutting W.Va. mine with 439

Murray Energy today will lay off about 1,800 workers—21 percent of its workforce—mostly at coal mines in West Virginia and Ohio, Timothy Puko and John Miller report for The Wall Street Journal. A spokesperson said the company made the decision on Wednesday "to make much bigger cuts than it had previously been considering because of growing concerns about the slumping market for thermal coal."

UPDATE, May 22: Alpha Natural Resources announced it would close its underground Rockspring Development Camp Creek mine in Wayne County, West Virginia, "which will mean the loss of 439 jobs," Susan Cameron reports for the Bristol Herald Courier. Alpha said the decision was "based on the mine operator's current assessment of market conditions."

Coal fuels less than 40 percent of the country's electric power, down from 49 percent in 2007, Puko and Miller note. Coal prices have dropped more than 15 percent in the past year "and are permanently stuck below those of natural gas, which is suddenly plentiful and inexpensive thanks to shale drilling." New environmental rules have led many utilities to phase out coal as a source of power, with many power companies "expected to retire substantial coal-fired generation capacity from the grid, the Energy Information Administration says."

Murray Energy operates 13 active mines at 12 mining complexes located in Northern Appalachia, the Illinois Basin and the Uintah Basin in Utah, according to the Murray Energy Corporation. Here is a map of Murray Energy operations outside of Utah.

Ohio Supreme Court orders private Otterbein Univ. to give police files to student newspaper

In a win for freedom of information, the Ohio Supreme Court sided with the editor of a student newspaper at Otterbein University who had requested student and non-student criminal cases that had been referred to the Westerville Mayor’s Court. Otterbein has a student body of about 3,000.

The January 2014 request by Anna Schiffbauer, an editor at Otterbein360.com, was denied by the university’s vice president and student affairs dean, who said the "private university’s police records are not public," reports the Society of Professional Journalists, which helped fund the case with a $10,000 contribution from its Legal Defense Fund. "Schiffbauer filed a mandamus action asking the Ohio Supreme Court to order the release of the documents."

"In a 4-3 decision in State ex rel. Schiffbauer v. Banaszak, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the Otterbein University police chief to produce the criminal records requested by Schiffbauer," SPJ reports. "The court said the university’s police department was established by statute to enforce criminal laws, and that function makes the department a public office under the state’s Public Records Act." (Read more)

John Deere sales continue to fall, dropping 22 percent in the past two years

The bottom has fallen out of the market for tractors and combines, with John Deere taking the biggest hit, Spencer Jakab reports for The Wall Street Journal. "Analysts see Deere’s revenue this fiscal year falling to $27.3 billion—a drop of 22 percent compared with two years earlier. Caterpillar’s sales are off, too, but by just half as much over the same period."

Record grain crops and train delays—blamed on increased shipments of oil and last year's bad winter—caused many farmers to store crops instead of selling for lower prices, which reduced the demand for tractors and combines and forced John Deere to announce plans last year to lay off 1,000 workers in Iowa.

Investors are expected today to report John Deere earnings of "$1.56 a share for the fiscal second quarter through April, down sharply from $2.65 a year earlier," Jakab writes. "During the fiscal first quarter, Deere’s U.S. and Canada equipment revenue fell by 14 percent, while it plunged by 28 percent everywhere else, exacerbated by the strong dollar. The company predicted global equipment sales would fall by 19 percent in the second quarter."

"Based on that, one would expect Deere’s share price to have trailed competitors in heavy-equipment manufacturing," Jakab writes. "Instead, it is the top performer with a drop of just 1 percent over the past year. That is perplexing since a turnaround isn’t expected soon. Based on forecasts going out to 2017, Deere’s earnings are seen remaining well below their fiscal 2013 peak." (Read more)

Free symposium on June 4 on 'Documenting Culture in the Twenty-First Century'

The American Folklife Center is hosting a free symposium, "Documenting Culture in the Twenty-First Century," on June 4 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The event will examine the past and present of documenting culture and how technology has impacted archiving culture. (Stephen Winick photo: Documentary equipment past and present)

"Speakers will consider how evolving approaches to ethics, social justice, ownership rights and privacy are affecting the acquisition, stewardship and sharing of materials at repositories like the Library of Congress," says the Folklife Center. "They will also explore how such approaches are creating other, newer opportunities for archiving and sharing cultural resources." (Read more)

Energy company tells Denton, Tex., officials it will resume fracking in city that banned practice

A Colorado energy company informed officials in Denton, Texas—which voted in November to ban fracking—that it plans to resume fracking in the city now that Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law "that limits the ability of Texas cities and local governments in writing local rules for oil and gas operators," Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe reports for the Denton Record-Chronicle. Employees for Vantage Energy told city officials the company plans to begin fracking on May 27. (Record-Chronicle photo by David Minton: A Vantage public notice announcing plans to resume fracking) 

Denton Mayor Chris Watts, who said the law "likely prevents the city from blocking Vantage’s plans to finish the gas wells," told Heinkel-Wolf, “It’s my understanding we don’t plan on seeking an injunction . . . Where we go from here hasn’t been determined.”

Child care not affordable in many states; costs more than in-state college tuition in 31 states

The annual cost of child care is higher than in-state college tuition in 31 states "and exceeds 40 percent of the average annual income of single mothers in 22 states," says a report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Danielle Paquette reports for The Washington Post. Researchers wrote, “No state provides adequate child-care supports to a majority of children under five."

Researchers looked at the cost of full-time daycare for infants and the number of 4-year-old enrolled in publicly funded Pre-K or equivalent programs, Paquette writes. The cheapest annual cost of daycare is in Alabama, at $5,547, or about 16 percent of a working mother's income. The cost is $16,500 in Massachusetts, $14,500 in New York, $12,500 in Illinois and $11,628 in California. Rates climb even higher in urban areas.

"Over the last three decades, weekly out-of-pocket spending on child-care for families with an employed mother has almost doubled, according to the Census Bureau," Paquette writes. One problem is a lack of reliable, affordable daycare, which causes some women to quit jobs or settle for jobs below their skill sets or part-time work in return for more schedule flexibility, said economist Ariane Hegewisch.

Another problem is that only 17 percent of children eligible for child-care subsidies under the federal parameters in 2011 received the assistance, the report found, Paquette writes. "An estimated 43 million workers can’t take a sick day without shrinking their paycheck, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families. They’re often forced to choose between a chunk of wages or, say, taking their child to the doctor."

The report found that only 12 percent of four-year-olds in New Hampshire have access to public preschool and only 13 percent in Hawaii, Idaho and Utah, Paquette writes. (Institute for Women’s Policy Research map)

Nation's 5.6 million rural veterans lack attention, resources, says Housing Assistance Council

Officials from the Housing Assistance Council said this week during their annual summit that public planners have too limited a view of the struggles of the nation's 5.6 million rural veterans to effectively reach them, Leo Shane reports for Military Times.

"Veterans in rural areas are generally older (median age 62) than the overall veterans population (median age 40) and more likely to own their own homes but less likely to have easy access to a variety of federal health care and employment offerings, according to group research," Shane writes.

"Jon Dieter, director of community services at Washington Longview Housing Authority, said recent national efforts to solve veterans' homelessness have led to a bounty of new housing resource partners in his state," Shane writes. "But when officials tried to expand those efforts from cities to rural regions, the available partners suddenly disappeared."

Deiter told Shane, "Like so many other things, you're just not going to find resources for rural veterans unless we push, pull and advocate for them. A lot of the problems we normally face with helping veterans become so much harder when we're in rural areas."

Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) said one concern is limited transportation options to VA facilities, especially for older veterans, Shane writes. Farr said "waiting for mobile care centers to visit their towns is less practical than getting the department to pay for checkups with private-sector doctors." Farr told Shane, "So we need a different approach. Too often rural America gets screwed on these kinds of services." (Read more)

Researchers find unsafe levels of cancer-causing toxins in Ohio's most heavily fracked county

Researchers who took samples from Ohio's most heavily fracked county found that toxic pollutants levels are higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for long term exposure, David Hasemyer reports for InsideClimate News. Researchers from Oregon State University and the University of Cincinnati found chemicals released during oil and gas extraction that can raise people's risk of cancer and respiratory ailments in samples from Carroll County, home to 480 permitted wells.

"Based on the data collected, researchers calculated the cancer risk posed by airborne contaminants in the Carroll County study areas," Hasemyer  writes. "For the worst-case scenario––exposure 24 hours a day over 25 years––they found that a person anywhere in the study area would be exposed at a risk level exceeding the threshold the EPA deems acceptable." (InsideClimate News map)

"The lifetime cancer risk in the study area estimated for maximum residential exposure was 2.9 in 10,000, which is nearly three times the EPA's acceptable risk level of 1 in 10,000, according to the study," Hasemyer writes. "The study mirrored other research conducted in heavily fracked areas of the country, including Texas and Pennsylvania, that have focused on volatile organic compounds." (Read more)

Republicans seek to block stricter mountaintop removal rules until new administration takes office

Congressional Republicans are seeking to block a stricter rule for disposal of mountaintop removal until after President Obama leaves the White House, in hopes that the next administration will be more friendly toward the practice, Sean Cockerham reports for McClatchy Newspapers. (Associated Press photo by James MacPherson)

Republicans say the stricter rule will kill jobs, Cockerham writes. The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, which has jurisdiction over mining, "backs a measure by West Virginia Republican Rep. Alex Mooney, which would block the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining from implementing the rule, calling for a study within two years, then a year of review, before any new stream protections."

Critics say blocking the rule will make residents near mountaintop removal sites continue to needlessly suffer for several more years, Cockerham writes. Michael Hendryx, a health science professor at Indiana University, told reporters, “They’re going to continue to have higher rates of disease and premature death. There is plenty of solid evidence that mountaintop removal mining is done in a way that’s not responsible for the environment or public health.”

"National Mining Association president Hal Quinn argued in testimony to Congress last week that the federal government has shown no need to act and that even the Office of Surface Mining’s own analysis of an earlier version of the rule said it would cost 7,000 jobs," Cockerham writes.

Author, business owner offers a regional vision for Eastern Kentucky economic growth

"The Shaping Our Appalachian Region program, known as SOAR, can’t provide a new regional vision for Eastern Kentucky’s economy; we have to provide it ourselves," writes Jason Belcher, Eastern Kentucky business owner and author of Nexus of Innovation: The Promise of Eastern Kentucky. Belcher attended last week's SOAR strategy summit in Pikeville, Ky.

Jason Belcher

"There are literally dozens of ways for individuals to access resources to turn their ideas into reality," Belcher writes. "I’m one of them. Thanks to the Kentucky Innovation Network, I’ve been able to start my own business, Appalachian Aerospace, looking to build the next generation of commercial unmanned aerial vehicles. Aerospace is a major growth industry, and commercial drones alone are projected to generate $9 billion in economic activity over the next decade."

"Growth industries represent potential building blocks for a regional economy," Belcher writes. "Because the market segments are global, these industries are capable of sustaining a regional economy through large-scale job creation and revenue in-flows. Capturing a global market segment is a good way to build a strong regional economy capable of providing the jobs we need and the future we want. Morehead State University’s Space Science Center already has a toe hold in the Aerospace field, and our region can leverage that to gain a share of this global market segment."

"Eastern Kentucky can position itself to compete for ownership of multiple global market segments if we make the right choices today," he writes. "As a region, our economic future depends on our ability to think globally but act regionally . . . If we steer more growth industries here, the result will be an influx of high-tech, high-paying jobs."

"Programs like SOAR can’t do that for us, but SOAR is a tool that can help us do it ourselves," Belcher writes. "That means we have a competitive resource advantage over other regions who don’t have SOAR or similar programs. If we use our new programs, resources and opportunities to capture a share of global market segments, Eastern Kentucky can be an economic powerhouse. That’s a regional vision for our future." (Read more)

USDA declines to investigate watchdog complaint that major organic farms are committing violations

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declined to investigate allegations from a watchdog group that some of the nation's largest organic egg and dairy farms are in violation of rules for organic agriculture, Peter Whoriskey reports for The Washington Post. (Cornucopia photo: A Texas organic dairy cited in a watchdog complaint)

The Cornucopia Institute says aerial photos it released in December prove that 14 organic operations are not allowing animals to engage in their natural behavior and have free access to the outdoors, Whoriskey writes. According to organic rules, "cows, goats and sheep are supposed to be able to get to pastures for grazing."

USDA, which said the five dairy farms and 14 chicken operations are in good standing, said the photographs are not evidence enough to warrant an investigation, Whoriskey writes. The operations, which supply stores such as Walmart, Target and Costco, according to the watchdog group, claim that the animals get outside but just happened to be inside when photos were taken.

Cornucopia officials, who said they will appeal the USDA decision, said the system is flawed because it allows organic farms to hire their own inspectors, and the inspections are typically announced long in advance, Whoriskey writes. Mark Kastel, co-founder of the group, told Whoriskey, "There's an inherent conflict of interest when you hire your own inspector. What Congress designed as a remedy was rigorous oversight by the USDA." (Read more)

Food industries gearing up to deal with FDA guidelines on use of antibiotics in animals

By the end of next year, a comprehensive set of rules will limit the use of antibiotics in animals. December 2016 is the end of a three-year phase-in of the new Food and Drug Administration guidelines, which require 280 antimicrobials considered important to human health "be labeled strictly to treat and prevent disease and no longer to accelerate weight gain," Agri-Pulse reports. An FDA directive on use of antibiotics in food and water is expected soon.

Some food industry players such as McDonald's are already supporting the initiative. The restaurant chain will soon stop buying meat that comes from animals treated with medically important antibiotics.

Critics have said the rules rely too much on voluntary compliance, but "Larry Granger, a leader in USDA's Antimicrobial Resistance Program, says a Southern rancher who's used to putting antibiotics in water during the summer to fight anaplasmosis (a wasting disease spread by ticks) will have to get a vet to approve the treatment before a pharmacy will dispense the drug," Agri-Pulse reports, noting that livestock owners who don't have convenient access to a veterinarian will need to get accustomed to the standards, which require the approval of a vet for antibiotic purchase and use.

The Farm Foundation held a roundtable discussion to help livestock owners learn how to adjust. In the summer and fall it will hold 10 public forums across the U.S. for producers. Although farmers and ranchers have questioned the FDA's broader regulatory reach, they aren't contesting it much because too many antibiotics can also make them less effective in farm animals. Also, overuse of antibiotics increases resistant strains of pathogens that can harm humans.

Grady Bishop, representing Animal Health, a top maker of animal health products, said those in the animal health industry can abide by the new rules by "using antibiotics intended for animals only, such as ionophores, a class of antibiotics never used on humans; using vaccines, enzymes or other products; or finding new animals husbandry practices to prevent or treat diseases."

Advances in technology put rural 911 at risk

California firefighter Randy MacDonald testified on Capitol Hill last week that advances in technology, particularly in rural areas, are making the 911 system "harder to use [and] less reliable and interfering with critical lifesaving features like enhanced 911, which provides dispatchers with the caller’s location," Tim Marema reports for the Daily Yonder. "The deficiencies are the result of changes in communications technology, which sees telecommunications companies and consumers moving to cell phones and Internet calling services instead of traditional copper wire systems that have been around for a century or more."

MacDonald, testifying at the event coordinated by the National Rural Assembly, the Rural Broadband Policy Group, and Public Knowledge, suggested three things Congress should consider for its telecommunications policy: "Put public safety first; ensure that new digital networks are at least as sturdy and reliable as the old copper-wire system; and do a better job of informing Americans that expanded choices in telecommunications can also make them more vulnerable during emergencies."

In many states, "phone companies have gotten state legislatures to eliminate or reduce state regulations on the old copper-line systems that people have relied on for generations," Marema writes. Kentucky filmmaker Mimi Pickering told Marema, “Rural Kentuckians are worried about what will happen during power outages, which are frequent and often long-lasting occurrences. Internet and wireless phones don’t work without electricity, or they operate on batteries which must be charged. Landlines have been our lifeline during these critical situations.”

Whitney Kimball Coe of the National Rural Assembly said consumer education needs to be a priority, Marema writes. Coe said that 75 percent of rural respondents to an informal survey didn’t know what kind of technology their phone used. (Read more)

Obama Administration unveils plan to save ailing honeybee and monarch butterfly populations

The Obama Administration on Tuesday detailed a plan to save the honeybee and monarch butterfly populations, mainly by adding or improving seven million acres of land "devoted to the wildflowers and milkweed that are crucial to their survival," Michael Wines reports for The New York Times. Honeybee populations lost 42.1 percent of colonies last year, while the monarch butterfly population has fallen by 90 percent in recent years.

The plan "aims to cut annual honeybee losses to 15 percent of colonies—roughly the average in earlier decades—by 2025," Wines writes. "For monarchs, the goal is to build by 2020 a migration large enough to cover 15 acres—or about 20 football fields—of the Mexico forest where the butterflies spend the winter. Last winter the monarchs occupied about 2.8 acres of forest."

Efforts would focus on the central U.S., "where about two-thirds of the nation’s managed honeybee colonies spend the summer and where monarchs conduct their annual migrations to and from Mexico," Wines writes. "It would include encouraging schools to plant pollinator gardens and turning land around Interstate 35, which runs from Duluth, Minn., to the Mexico border at Laredo, Tex., into a continuous wildflower buffet for migrating monarchs and other pollinating creatures."

Also, "federal agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and the Defense Department would include pollinator habitats in their management of government property, whether in restoring fire-damaged forests or landscaping a new office building," Wines writes. "Federal officials would encourage state highway and utility offices to plant wildflowers and milkweed along rights of way instead of planting and mowing grass. Among other initiatives, the strategy will modestly increase funding for research into bees and other pollinators, expand public education and study ways to minimize pollinators’ exposure to pesticides."

Environmental groups said the plan doesn't go far enough to address pesticides, which have been partially blamed for the declines, Wines writes.

Texas restriction on local fracking regulations takes effect; Denton ban will be impossible to enforce

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday signed a law "that restricts how municipalities can regulate oil and gas drilling operations within their city limits," Marissa Barnett reports for The Dallas Morning News. The law, which goes into effect immediately, will "pre-empt cities from enacting a variety of other ordinances, including regulations on wastewater disposal wells, which numerous studies have tied to earthquakes."

Residents in Denton voted in November 2014 to ban fracking, becoming the first city in the state to do so. The law will probably make that fracking ban impossible to enforce, Barnett writes. (Morning News photo: Denton)

Abbott said, “Oil and gas is already regulated at the state level by multiple agencies, at the federal level by multiple agencies. The last thing we need is an encroachment on private property rights at the local level . . . We’re ensuring that people and officials at the local level are not going to be encroaching upon individual liberty or individual rights.”

Critics say the law "is an affront to local control and prevents cities from picking up the slack where state regulation has failed," Barnett writes. "Under the law, municipal ordinances must be related to surface activity, must be 'commercially reasonable,' must not effectively prevent an oil and gas operation from occurring and must not be pre-empted by another state or federal law." (Read more)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk higher in rural and poor areas

An individual living in a poor or rural community has almost a 12 percent chance of having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, compared to the national average, which is slightly higher than 7 percent, according to a study by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Roberta Alexander writes for Healthline.

COPD is one of the top causes of death in the U.S., said Sarah Raju, the study's lead author. The study found that living in the South or a rural area or in an area with community poverty were associated with COPD prevalence, but community poverty became insignificant when individual income was factored in.

The survey included 87,701 participants all older than 40. Some of the patients had never been formally diagnosed with the illness but had emphysema, bronchitis or asthma. COPD is a general term for emphysema—the enlargement of air sacs—and chronic bronchitis—the narrowing of the air tubes, said Linda Nici, the chief of the pulmonary/critical care section at the Providence Veterans Administration Medical Center in Rhode Island.

One effective way to avoid contracting COPD is not to smoke or to quit smoking. This is especially important in adolescence. "Researchers found an associated between biomass fuels and COPD in the South" and "suggest further research to understand the potential contribution of occupational exposure, fuel sources and indoor air pollutants to COP prevalence in poor, rural areas," Alexander writes.

The scientific evidence isn't yet available, but it appears that burning biomass contributes to disease. "It's probably better to use environmentally friendly fuels," Raju said. (Read more)

Obama Administration unveils plan to reduce to rural poverty; poverty report to be issued today

Today the Obama Administration unveiled a plan to tackle rural poverty that will focus on 10 communities, particularly in the Deep South and on Indiana reservations. The communities have yet to be selected.

The plan is designed to provide "more health care, child care and food to families in remote rural communities" and "will focus on programs that help a family as a whole unit, as opposed to separate programs for parents and children," Marisol Bello reports for USA Today. Programs will include job training and "look at providing mobile services, such as trucks that offer groceries." USDA also will focus on "providing more food to children during school, after school and during the summer months," Vilsack said.

Other strategies will include preventing a tax increase for 16 million working families with children, helping states expand Medicaid, increasing minimum wage, making two years of community college free, improving access to health services and encouraging federal agencies to work together and with external partners in efficient ways, according to a White House press release.

The federal poverty measure said that 45.8 million people were poor in 2013, Bello writes. In rural areas, the poverty rate is 16 percent, says a report the administration will release today. The report says that "while rural poverty has dropped drastically since the late 1960s, it has been consistently higher than urban poverty over the last 40 years." (Read more)