Rural newspapers need to step up in national emergency

A special message to readers of The Rural Blog, especially newspapers:

We are hearing from public-health experts who are concerned about the lack of caution—social distancing and other measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus—in rural America. We've reported on the possible reasons for that, but what's important right now is to get past the politics and finger-pointing and make rural Americans realize that they are part of the greatest domestic emergency since the Civil War, and that they need to behave socially as if EVERYONE HAS THE VIRUS.

Sample copy edition

The means of giving those warnings are up to individual news outlets, but every newspaper has a great tool to reach everyone in its community: a sample-copy edition, as was done by The Cynthiana Democrat, the weekly in the first Kentucky county to identify a case of covid-19. A sad fact of newspaper circulation these days is that it doesn't reach most people in most counties. Sample copying does that, and we can help you can find ways to have others pay the extra printing and postal costs.

Beyond newspapers and sample copying, please remember that this is a LOCAL story for every news outlet in the world. Your local government and public-health officials should have received plenty of information that they can share with you and your audience. In some cases, local officials may not understand the gravity of this situation, and you could play a role in reminding them of it.

We stand ready to help you help your community in this national emergency.

Al Cross, Director
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
al.cross@uky.edu

Coronavirus is hurting rural tourism, even though health experts say it shouldn't prevent outdoor recreation

Health experts say the coronavirus should't prevent outdoor recreation, and the time of year for that is arriving. However, the coronavirus pandemic is expected to hurt local economies that depend on tourism and leisure, according to a new analysis from The Brookings Institution. Towns that rely on oil and gas production will also likely be affected disproportionately, the analysis predicts.

The layoffs have already begun, The Washington Post reports. "We will definitely see an effect on jobs from the coronavirus, and it could be pretty large in leisure and hospitality,” Julia Pollak, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter, told the Post. "The first thing we’ll see is a reduction in hours. We hear many reports of employers canceling staff everywhere except in health care."

Over the past week, for example, ski resorts in Colorado, Utah, California, Vermont and more have shut down during one of the most popular months for ski trips, John Branch reports for The New York Times. State officials in Moab, Utah, barred any new tourists from staying in hotels, worried that the local hospital couldn't handle treating locals and tourists if there was a local outbreak, The Associated Press reports.

Economic disruption from coronavirus could cost small farmers and ranchers dearly, new research says

The closure of restaurants, farmers' markets, and other local and regional customers of farmers and ranchers could cause up to a $688 million decline in sales from March to May, according to a new analysis by a former official in USDA's Local Food Research and Development Division, along with researchers at Colorado State University and the University of Missouri. The researchers predict a payroll decline of up to $103.3 million and a total loss to the economy of up to $1.32 billion during that time period. The paper has been circulating on Capitol Hill, Philip Brasher reports for AgriPulse.

About 159,000 farms and ranches sold food to local and regional markets in 2017. The vast majority, 85 percent, are small farmers, and one-quarter are beginners, according to the study. "Congress or USDA should waive limitations on the ability of feeding programs to procure locally and regionally produced foods, and farmers should be encouraged to integrate online ordering and sales into their businesses, the paper says," Brasher reports.

"The latest Senate stimulus does not cover USDA programs or farmers, but that could change," Catherine Boudreau reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association requested direct financial aid for ranchers in the next emergency aid package, and the National Corn Growers Association plans to make a similar request.

Farmers might soon face a different kind of squeeze, too: the U.S. recently closed its consulates in Mexico, which processes migrant farmworker visas under the H-2A program, Geoffrey Mohan reports for the Los Angeles Times.

Quick hits: Biden dominated the rural vote this week; Blackjewel settles in Wyoming class-action lawsuit

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general will review whether the EPA followed federal rules and sound science when approving the herbicide dicamba for farm use in 2016 and renewing its registration in 2018. Read more here.

The AgriPulse 2020 Ag & Food Policy Summit has been postponed from March 23 until June 22. Read more here.

In the Florida and Illinois primaries earlier this week, Joe Biden enjoyed his most widespread support in rural areas, according to The Daily Yonder. Read more here.

Bankrupt coal operator Blackjewel has reached a tentative settlement in a class-action lawsuit representing hundreds of miners in Wyoming. Read more here.

Rural health care providers brace for coronavirus impact. Read more here.

CDC plans webinar Monday, March 23, with updates for rural stakeholders on response to coronavirus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will host a free webinar on March 23 to update rural stakeholders and communities on the coronavirus pandemic. The webinar starts at 1 p.m. ET and will last about an hour. Click here to register. You'll need Zoom software, which is free.

Dr. Jay Butler, deputy CDC director for Infectious Diseases, will discuss what the agency knows and what it is doing in response. The webinar is aimed at public health practitioners, health care providers, and other stakeholders promoting rural health, including journalists.

Butler will answer questions after his presentation. Email eocevent337@cdc.gov to submit questions in advance and indicate that questions are for the March 23 call. If your question is not answered during the call, send it to ruralhealth@cdc.gov. A recording of the webinar will be available later.

Click here for the CDC's general resource and information page for the covid-19 pandemic. The Rural Health Information Hub also has a toolkit with links to resources helpful in covering the outbreak.

Incident involving Facebook post and newspaper in Cape Girardeau, Mo., shows how dangerous fake news can be

Jon K. Rust

A column from the publisher of a small daily newspaper in Missouri shows how dangerous "fake news" can be, and how important it is for publications to safeguard their reputation with the public.

Last week, a man posted on Facebook a link to a story purporting to be from the Southeast Missourian in Cape Girardeau. The poster used the paper's logo and aped its online layout, and even used real names from a local hospital in a story that said the first local case of covid-19 had been confirmed. The man styles himself a prankster, but his actions were "an irresponsible fraud," writes Publisher Jon K. Rust. "What he did was like yelling 'fire' in a crowded movie theater.

Newspaper staffers were forced to escalate how they dealt with the fake story as it gained steam overnight. The post disappeared the next day after a Southeast Missourian article quoted Rust's threat to contact law enforcement and file suit. Rust later learned from local and federal authorities that the prankster had once held a part-time overnight job at the newspaper and had been fired.

"At some point, some semblance of the fake post is likely to become true. Southeast Missouri will, in fact, have its first covid-19 case," Rust writes. "But when dealing with sensitive information like this, it's important that the reporting is accurate. Knowledge is one way to maintain a sense of control in today's uncertain world. When credible sources are maligned or falsely diminished, it undercuts social cohesion. It is vital to you, our community and our democracy that you can trust our reporting. We take that responsibility seriously. Who knows what the motivation of many who post on Facebook is. Do you really know what's fake?"

Or, as we like to say, people need to understand the difference in news media and social media. News media pay for journalism, which practices a discipline of verification and emphasizes fact. Social media have no discipline and no verification, and emphasize opinion. That message needs to be repeated, now more than ever.

Colorado brings medication-assisted therapy for opioid users to rural areas with recreational-vehicle clinics

One of the RVs and two of its staff in Holyoke, Colorado.
(Photo by The Holyoke Enterprise)

Medication-assisted therapy (MAT) is widely acknowledged to be the most effective way to treat opioid addiction, but it can be difficult for rural residents to access it. Colorado is trying to make it a little easier by deploying six RVs to circulate among small towns with no access to MAT.

"Each RV will have a nurse, an addiction counselor and a peer coach who is in recovery from addiction," Jennifer Brown reports for The Colorado Sun. "The rigs — with satellite capacity — will use telehealth to connect a patient with a doctor who can write prescriptions" for the synthetic opioid buprenorphine. The RVs will also have a bathroom to collect urine samples, a nurse's station, and a private room for counseling sessions.

Buprenorphine can be prescribed for a month at a time, unlike methadone, which must be dispensed at clinics daily for those just beginning their recovery. That means the RVs can help more patients and cover more ground, Brown reports.

Three of the six RVs are already on the road, and the other three are still being retrofitted. "The goal is that each of the six vehicles eventually will see at least 50 patients per week, providing medication-assisted treatment for those who are addicted to heroin or prescription opioids," Brown reports. "Visits are by appointment or walk-in, and staff have been spreading the word at medical clinics, hospitals and shelters."

The RV staff say that being out-of-towners is an asset because it helps bring drug users out of the woodwork who wouldn't admit to locals that they needed help, Brown reports. That may help local leaders realize that their communities have an opioid problem and take action, said Robert Werthwein, director of the state Office of Behavioral Health. He had the idea for the RVs after hearing about a similar effort in New York state.

The Office of Behavioral Health in the Colorado Department of Human Services is funding the project with $6.7 million from a federal State Opioid Response grant. The grant has also paid for almost 42,000 overdose kits, provided naloxone to 16 county jails, helped open clinics, and trained doctors to prescribe buprenorphine.

Rural skepticism about coronavirus and covid-19 driven by ideology, not geography, NBC-Wall St. Journal poll shows

Rural Americans' greater skepticism about the coronavirus threat is driven by ideology, not geography, Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann and Melissa Holzberg of NBC News report in this morning's "First Read."

"Our recent NBC News/WSJ poll turned some heads when it showed WIDELY different partisan reactions to the coronavirus, with Democratic voters much more concerned about the outbreak than Republican respondents," they write. "But couldn’t the difference also be geographical – that all voters in urban areas (regardless of party) are more concerned about the coronavirus than rural voters (regardless of party)?"

The answer is no, they say, giving breakdowns form the poll, which was taken March 11-13:

Are you worried that someone in your immediate family with catch the coronavirus?
All voters: 53 percent
Urban Democrats: 70 percent
Suburban Democrats: 68 percent
Rural Democrats: 65 percent
Urban Republicans: 44 percent
Suburban Republicans: 37 percent
Rural Republicans: 41 percent

Have you stopped or do you plan to stop attending large public gatherings?
All voters: 47 percent
Urban Democrats: 59 percent
Suburban Democrats: 63 percent
Rural Democrats: 59 percent
Urban Republicans: 32 percent
Suburban Republicans: 28 percent
Rural Republicans: 30 percent

3 p.m. ET today is deadline to co-sign statement urging governments to be transparent during coronavirus crisis

The National Freedom of Information Coalition and the University of Florida's Brechner Center for Freedom of Information will send out a statement urging state and local public officials all over the nation to ensure that residents continue to have unfettered access to their proceedings during the coronavirus pandemic:

"As our public institutions must make arrangements to function in this time of uncertainty, changing their open meeting laws and administrative practices that provide more flexibility to public officials yet decrease access and accountability to their residents must not occur. Instead, these institutions need to use this crisis to increase transparency and public access to their proceedings and information."

If you, your organization or publication would like to co-sign the statement, please email NFOIC executive director Daniel Bevarly by 3 p.m. ET at dbevarly@nfoic.org.

Legislation to control surprise medical billing, air-ambulance costs and drug pricing could be in next coronavirus package

Advocates of long-debated legislation to control surprise medical billing are trying to add it to the third coronavirus package being written by Republican senators, sources close to the negotiations told Inside Health Policy. "Also uncertain is the fate of pending drug-pricing legislation," Ariel Cohen reports. For surprise billing, the package "is viewed as the last vehicle for the legislation for some time," Cohen writes. "There’s no telling when lawmakers will return to the Capitol due to the global pandemic."

The billing legislation would use a plan "favored by insurers because it relies on a benchmark payment rate before moving to arbitration for out-of-network charges," Cohen reports. "Hospitals and providers prefer surprise-billing fixes that rely more heavily on arbitration. . . . Lawmakers are presenting the measure as part of the bailout to hospitals," which "are going to have to make a choice," an unnamed insurance lobbyist told Cohen. "Do they defeat surprise billing or say we’re getting a lot here, let's not rock the boat too hard'?"

The surprise-billing measure "includes a benchmark payment rate to resolve air-ambulance payment disputes," Cohen notes. "Air ambulance providers have lobbied against the policy because they say it could lead to air bases closing in rural areas."

Webinar on Monday, March 23, will cover what rural residents, especially farmers, need to know about covid-19

The AgriSafe Network's Learning Lab will host a free webinar at noon CT Monday, March 23, to share evidence-based information about covid-19 geared toward a rural audience, including farmers, ranchers, veterinarians, Extension Service personnel, rural health-care workers, and others who work in or with agriculture. The webinar will take a little over an hour, organizers say. Register here.

The webinar aims to familiarize participants with common symptoms of covid-19, explain the transmission risk between people and potentially farm animals, teach infection control principles and appropriate strategies for limiting disease transmission, and share infection prevention resources and training for agriculture producers. It will feature four speakers:

• Heather Fowler, director of producer and public health at the National Pork Board.
• Chad Roy, director of infectious-disease aerobiology and director of biodefense research at the Tulane National Primate Research Center and professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane School of Medicine.
• Charlotte Halverson, clinical director for AgriSafe.
• Jeff Bender, professor of veterinary public health at the University of Minnesota; professor and director of the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

A recording of the webinar will be available on the website within a few hours afterward.

Grasslands conservation program applications open; farmers and ranchers get paid for protecting grazing lands

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program opened applications for its Grasslands initiative this week. Through CRP Grasslands, farmers and ranchers will receive an annual rental payment and up to 50 percent cost-share for establishing approved conservation practices on their grasslands, rangelands and pastures, while still using the land for agricultural purposes, according to a USDA press release.

Participants still retain the right to conduct common grazing practices like haying, mowing or harvesting seed, though the timing some activities may be restricted by things like the primary nesting season of birds. CRP contracts are for either 10 or 15 years.

The USDA's Farm Service Agency will administer the program, one of the largest conservation programs at USDA. This year marks its 35th anniversary, with more than 22 million acres currently enrolled. The 2018 Farm Bill authorized 2 million new acres for the program. Applications are due by May 15. Contact your local Farm Service Agency to apply for the program or for more information.

USDA to increase efforts to help beginning farmers and ranchers; national coordinator for program hired

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is creating a new team focused on helping beginning farmers and ranchers, Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture.

The average farmer is 58 years old, and 63 percent of American farmland will need a new farmer in the next 25 years as more farmers retire. More than a quarter of producers are beginners, and may not know about resources and programs they're eligible for. The 2018 Farm Bill directed the USDA to create one national coordinator position, plus state-level coordinators for each of its four agencies: the Farm Service Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Risk Management Agency, and Rural Development. Each state coordinator will receive training tailored to their state.

The newly hired national coordinator is Sarah Campbell. "A beginning farmer herself, Campbell held previous positions with USDA and has a wealth of experience working on issues impacting beginning farmers and ranchers. She recently served as acting director of customer experience for the Farm Production and Conservation Business Center," said a press release. Campbell's perspective as a female farmer may be helpful, since women make up an increasing share of young farmers.

Stories cover rural impact of the coronavirus, plus a closeup on a rural town where many are already sick

Three recent news stories offer a good overview of how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting rural America.

In this piece, April Simpson of Stateline digs into how covid-19 is stretching the limits of rural America's already strained health-care system.

This piece, from Forbes contributor Clary Estes, takes a deep dive into the many issues that can exacerbate or complicate the outbreak in rural areas, including broadband, black lung, demographics, and (frequently) the lack of reliable local news sources. Estes, who lives in a small town just outside Lexington, Kentucky, notes that many rural residents—including her parents—aren't taking the pandemic seriously and aren't heeding calls to practice social distancing.

And finally, this piece from just down the road in Cynthiana, Kentucky, shows what it's like in a small town already seeing a significant number of covid-19 cases. At one point the town accounted for about half the cases in Kentucky, Rick Rojas reports for The New York Times.

To help with covid-19, government relaxes Medicare tele-health rules, lets closed schools serve meals to students

The federal government has been taking a number of measures to help rural areas impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday that it is working with several organizations to provide meals to students in schools closed due to the coronavirus. Many school districts have been serving meals to students as they would during the summer; the USDA already waived the requirement that students eat the food in a "congregated" setting, which allows students to take meals home and avoid unnecessary exposure to others, AgWeek reports. Areas that don't have access to the USDA's Summer Food Service Program will be prioritized.

The USDA is working with the Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, McLane Global, PepsiCo, and others to provide nearly a million meals a week, starting next week. Pepsi is providing $1 million. The program will be based on the 2019 "Meals-2-You" home-delivery pilot program. Children will get boxes containing five days' worth of shelf-stable, nutritious, individually packaged foods that meet the USDA's summer food requirements, AgWeek reports. Initial capacity will be limited, and other vendors are actively being sought to contribute to the program.

Meanwhile, Medicare tele-health services have been temporarily expanded nationwide. "Physicians, nurse practitioners, clinical psychologists and licensed clinical social workers can now offer tele-health to Medicare beneficiaries in any healthcare facility, including a physician's office, hospital, nursing home or rural health clinic, as well as from their homes," Mike Miliard reports for Healthcare IT News. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General "is also adding flexibility for healthcare providers to reduce or waive cost-sharing for telehealth visits paid by federal healthcare programs. Providers can learn more with this fact sheet."

The move is meant to keep patients with non-coronavirus health issues from traveling to a clinic or hospital where they may be exposed (or expose others) to covid-19. It will also free up clinics and hospitals to focus on covid-19 cases, Miliard reports.

"A bipartisan group of 24 senators is asking FEMA to coordinate with USDA and the Interior Department to deploy federal workers trained in emergency response to rural communities overwhelmed by the pandemic. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are 'uniquely qualified,' the senators wrote," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture.

One problem to keep an eye on in rural areas, though: hospitals nationwide could start running low on ventilators if they get overwhelmed with covid-19 cases. Since rural hospitals are generally last in line in medical supply chains, the problem could be more acute there. President Trump recently advised states not to rely on the federal government and to start looking for ventilators themselves. But China, South Korea and Italy snapped up ventilators months ago as they dealt with the pandemic, and now it will be months before major manufacturers can make a dent in the projected need in the U.S. Click here for a deeper dive into the ventilator situation, and how some are attempting to mitigate it.

Wednesday webinar will discuss ideas for farmers and ranchers to make more money with agritourism

On March 19, the Texas AgrAbility program will present a free webinar called "Ideas for Starting Rural Agriculture Businesses" at 2 p.m. CT. The presentation will last about an hour; you will need to download (free) Zoom software to access it on your computer or phone.

The presenter will be Greg Clary, a business consultant with the Texas Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and a retired Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economist with more than 30 years of experience in helping people start and expand agriculture- and natural resource-based businesses. During the webinar, he will discuss ideas for helping farmers and ranchers add new revenue streams to their agricultural operations via agritourism and other ventures.

Why are freshwater mussels dying off? It's a mystery

Dead mussels along the Clinch River
(Photo by Meagan Racey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

From NPR: "In 2016, biologists and fishermen across the country started to notice something disturbing. Freshwater mussels were dying in large numbers. NPR National Correspondent Nathan Rott tells us about the unsolved mystery surrounding the die-off, the team racing to figure it out, and why mussels are so important for the health of our streams and rivers." Listen to the segment here.

"Biologists at a regional branch of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in southwestern Virginia first learned about losses in fall of 2016 when locals in reported that large numbers of pheasantshell mussels (Actinonaias pectorosa) were dying in the Clinch River along the Virginia and Tennessee border," Jason Daley reports for Smithsonian Magazine. "The Clinch River isn’t alone. Biologists have also recorded recent mass freshwater mussel die-offs in the Pacific Northwest, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Michigan and even one in Spain. What exactly is killing off the mollusks is not clear, and testing has not identified a single culprit. At first, researchers suspected chemical spill or some pollutant was responsible. But the fact that only one species—the pheasantshell—was affected at first suggests a disease is responsible."

Rural Health Information Hub releases toolkit with links to resources helpful in covering coronavirus

The Rural Health Information Hub has compiled a toolkit with links to state and federal resources that may be helpful in covering the coronavirus pandemic. Click here to read it.

Report catalogues groups interested in open government, suggests ways to better access public information

A new report catalogues more than 300 U.S. groups that have an interest in government transparency and provides advice on ways such organizations can further work together to improve access to government information.

The report, released on Monday at the beginning of Sunshine Week, is the second part of a study commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to identify barriers for journalists and citizens in accessing government information and suggest solutions. The first part of the report, released in March 2017, focused on the barriers. This second part focuses on solutions, and gathered data by analyzing the groups and interviewing 53 executive directors.

The report creates a rough taxonomy of transparency groups, dividing them into 12 loose "galaxies" such as journalists, civil societies, state Freedom of Information coalitions, philanthropists, and more, each with their own strengths and wheelhouses. Some of the 300+ groups already work with groups from other galaxies to harness these differing strengths; more such coordination is the key to improving access to government information, the report says.

Click here for a searchable spreadsheet of the groups.

Ellis, who was only rural correspondent in Ky.'s capital, dies

Ronnie Ellis in a prime spot, outside a leadership office on the legislative floor of Kentucky's Capitol. (Lexington Herald-Leader)

Ronnie Ellis, a political reporter and columnist who was the only rural correspondent in Kentucky's state capital, died of lung disease Monday. He was 68.

Ellis retired in November 2018 as the Frankfort correspondent for Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., but continued to write a column for the company, which has daily newspapers in Ashland, Richmond, Somerset, Corbin and Ellis's hometown of Glasgow, plus several Kentucky weeklies. His passing brought tributes from political leaders on both sides.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said, “Ronnie Ellis’s journalistic instincts were surpassed only by his journalistic integrity. The role he played for some of Kentucky’s more rural outlets was integral to the Capitol press corps.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Ellis “earned a reputation as one of the hardest working reporters in Kentucky. He was always armed with the tough questions, and he helped set the standard for other journalists. Ronnie gave his readers a first-hand look into their government and helped shape countless conversations across the commonwealth. . . . Even when he disagreed with your position, you knew he’d treat everyone fairly. I’m going to miss his insightful perspective.”

Another Republican, state House Speaker David Osborne, said, “Ronnie Ellis was a legend in Kentucky journalism. His coverage provided local newspapers throughout the commonwealth with unparalleled access to Kentucky government and politics. However, those who knew Ronnie will also remember his great sense of humor and incredible institutional knowledge.”

Last month, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame announced that Ellis would be in its 40th anniversary class, to be inducted later this year. "It just goes to show that what he did was so good," a Glasgow friend, Chris Eaton, in an audio tribute on Twitter. "Everybody wanted to talk to Ronnie Ellis. . . . People followed him throughout the commonwealth."

Services for Ellis are being delayed by the pandemic. The family says memorial gifts may be made to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.