USDA funds 71 climate-related projects at less than $5 million, many of them to 'figure out what works,' Vilsack says

The Department of Agriculture has funded 71 more five-year "projects to develop climate-smart commodities and a money-making market for them," reports Chuck Abbott of Successful Farming. The $325 million is the second round of funding in its Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, which now totals 141 projects and $3.1 billion, a USDA press release said.

The latest round of grants were for less than $5 million each, to focus on "small and under-served producers and work by minority-serving institutions to measure, monitor, report, and verify the results of climate-smart practices," Abbott reports. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, "We believe that this program will allow us to figure out what works and, frankly, what doesn't work. . . . There are some amazing projects here." For a list of the first- and second-round projects, click here.

"Republicans in Congress say the White House exceeded its authority in creating such a large program on its own, and some critics in the scientific community say more detail is needed to judge the value of the projects," Abbott notes. Republicans don't like that the money comes from "a $30 billion reserve at USDA that also pays for crop subsidies," the Commodity Credit Corp. "Vilsack tripled the size of the program in September after USDA was deluged with proposals, all of which promised private-sector funding."

The 71 projects include agroforestry in New York, hemp in Tennessee, organic eggs in Ohio and Kentucky, specialty crops in California, cattle in Virginia and West Virginia, removing nuisance seaweed from Puget Sound for use as fertilizer, and cover crops for orchards in and near food deserts. There is also "a test of buffalo to mitigate global warming and to market buffalo meat as a climate-smart food," involving 79 tribes and 20,000 head of bison, Abbott reports. "They are the original climate regulator," said Troy Heinert of the InterTribal Buffalo Council. The grant's "funding ceiling," USDA says, is $4,950,000.

Vilsack announced the grants at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which will get a grant with a funding ceiling of $4,999,999 "to support small-scale and other under-served producers . . . transform their traditional production into a multi-pronged agroforestry-based climate-smart, sustainable production system," USDA says. Identical amounts were allocated to the University of Illinois, which will work with Tuskegee and other partners "to scale up robotic cover crop planting and verification of soil carbon" in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Iowa; University of Maryland Eastern Shore to "promote climate-smart cover crops as a feedstock" for anaerobic digesters that process chicken litter; Foodshed Inc. and other partners for "incentives to small and socially disadvantaged specialty crop farmers in San Diego County" in California; the University of Guam "to market climate-smart commodities and achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions in Pacific Island agriculture and forestry systems while improving affordable food and nutrition security of disadvantaged, at-risk, island communities;" and Whitaker Grain "to provide a market platform for rice growers producing premium rice that is certified sustainably grown" in Arkansas.

Getting an allocation of $2 less than those, The Nature Conservancy is in line for $4,999,997 to "grow a set of climate-adapted tree species resilient to the projected climate futures of Minnesota’s Midwest Broadleaf Forest." Other grants near the limit: $4,999,900 to the Coalition for Food Security "to implement climate-smart practices related to indoor hydroponic vertical farming;" the same amount to Regeneration International; the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance to support poultry producers who follow diversified regenerative climate-smart grain production methods" in the Midwest; the same to Working Landscapes and other North Carolina partners to promote climate-smart practices "among small and underserved producers, including tribal producers, principally by equipping food hubs to finance and advise on-farm climate-smart practice implementation and marketing to wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels;" $4,999,800 to Chico State University to launch a "food hub for climate-smart agriculture" in the northern Sacramento River valley; and the same to Western Landowners Alliance "to empower New Mexico Latino and under-served beef and pork producers and their trusted partners to collectively develop, implement, monitor, quantify and broker climate-smart livestock projects."

Electric cars threaten future of AM radio and maybe local radio news, but overcoming interference is possible

Rush hour in Chicago. Many AM radio listeners tune in during
commutes. (Photo by Alyssa Schukar, The New York Times)

Amplitude modulation transmissions, or AM radio, may be on its way out, which is bad news for local news in places that still have local radio news. "An increasing number of electric models have dropped AM radio in what broadcasters call a worrisome shift that could spell trouble for the stations and deprive drivers of a crucial source of news in emergencies," reports Michael Levenson of The New York Times.

"Carmakers say that electric vehicles generate more electromagnetic interference than gas-powered cars, which can disrupt the reception of AM signals and cause static, noise and a high-frequency hum," Levenson writes. AM and electricity are similar forms of electromagnetism. "Tesla, Audi, Porsche and Volvo have also removed AM radio from their electric vehicles, as has Volkswagen from its electric S.U.V., ID.4, according to the carmakers and the National Association of Broadcasters."

It is possible to overcome the interference issues, Levenson reports: "Such changes require money and effort, and it’s not clear whether carmakers are willing to spend more in the service of AM radio fans. . . . If more electric vehicles drop AM radio, some broadcasters say they could lose a connection to their core listeners."

AM stations have a healthy percentage of the U.S. radio market. "About 47 million Americans listen to AM radio, representing about 20 percent of the radio-listening public, according to the Nielsen Co., the media tracking firm," Levenson reports.

"Brian Winnekins, the owner of WRDN in Durand, Wis., which has seven hours of farm-related programming every weekday on AM and FM, told Levenson he has been urging listeners to tell carmakers not to drop AM, noting that it can reach farmers in remote areas. “If you can make a vehicle drive by itself,” Mr. Winnekins said to Levenson, referring to the driver-assistance systems in Teslas and other vehicles, “you can make a decent radio receiver."

Substation attacks focus attention on grid's vulnerabilities

A string of attacks with at least two involving gunfire occurred at substations and other power
facilities since mid-October in the U.S. South and Pacific. (Photo by Claudine Hellmuth, E&E News)

Last week's disruptive shooting attacks on two substations in North Carolina, have focused attention on the vulnerabilities of the electric grid. "The incidents in the Carolinas followed attacks at six substations in Oregon and Washington in October and November," reports Miranda Willson of Energy Wire. "Grid security experts said it’s too early to tell whether the incidents were related or unusual in number, but said they showcase a need for the energy industry to be vigilant and prepared."

“It remains troubling and highlights how vulnerable is our critical infrastructure,” Richard Mroz, a senior adviser at the grid security advocacy group Protect Our Power, told Willson in an email. Ross Johnson, a security and intelligence specialist at Bridgehead Security Consulting, told Willson, "It’s a signal-to-noise problem: substation incidents are common, gunfire less so but not unheard of, and until arrests are made we are unlikely to know the motivation."

Willson reports, "There are more than 55,000 substations nationwide ... a key component of the power grid. The incidents come at a time when energy regulators and others say that threats to the power system — be they physical or cyber in nature — are becoming more serious and common."

There have been no identified motives or suspects for the recent attacks. "While some of the incidents involved gunfire," Wilson notes. "It’s unclear if guns were involved in all of the events.

In Oregon, two substations near Portland were targeted in what utilities described as deliberate attacks," Willson reports. "At least four substations in Washington have also been vandalized or targeted."

FEMA's flawed hazard maps are unable to predict pluvial flooding driven by climate change, Washington Post reports

Water reached the tops of cars in South Dallas,
Texas, in August. (Photo by Dkamreen Jones)

Destructive flooding ambushed sections of the U.S. throughout 2022, leaving areas waterlogged and people homeless. The Washington Post has completed an "analysis of videos taken by people who endured destruction from flooding pinpoints how federal maps are failing to reflect the growing peril that Americans face," Samuel Oakford, John Muyskens, Sarah Cahlan, and Joyce Sohyun Lee report. "Government flood-insurance maps often left residents unprepared for the threat."

In July 2022, "Brandon Jones’s St. Louis home was hit by major flooding for the second time since 2008. Cars were barely visible under several feet of turgid storm water, as record rainfall fell on the city. . . . Two days later, the area flooded all over again."

The flooding took Jones by surprise: "Jones’s Penrose neighborhood isn’t designated as a high-risk location on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood maps," the Post reports. "These high-risk zones, which lie in what’s called the Special Flood Hazard Area, cover properties that the agency considers to have at least a 1 percent annual chance of flooding. This 100-year flood plain designation requires property owners with federally backed mortgages to buy flood insurance, and it influences how communities regulate development."

The Post reports that part of the reason Jones was not prepared is that FEMA's maps need an overhaul: "They capture river and coastal flooding, not inundation caused by intense bursts of rainfall, known as pluvial flooding — a particularly dangerous problem in cities, where many porous surfaces have been paved over. This makes FEMA’s designated flood hazard zones a bad match for the intense weather events that scientists say U.S. communities will face."

Daniel Swain, climate scientist at UCLA, told the Post, “It is precisely that type of flooding, urban flooding and flash flooding from shortish duration but very high-intensity downpours, that is expected to increase the most in a warming climate."

For 7 deadly years, feds flubbed fentanyl fight, Post reports, naming DEA, DHS, HHS, CDC, White House drug office

Photos of fentanyl victims in the lobby of DEA headquarters (Photo by Salwan Georges, The Washington Post)

"During the past seven years, as soaring quantities of fentanyl flooded into the United States, strategic blunders and cascading mistakes by successive U.S. administrations allowed the most lethal drug crisis in American history to become significantly worse," The Washington Post reports in a long story that begins a massive package on the problem.

"Presidents from both parties failed to take effective action in the face of one of the most urgent threats to the nation’s security, one that claims more lives each year than car accidents, suicides or gun violence," Nick Miroff, Scott Higham, Steven Rich, Salwan Georges and Erin Patrick O'Connor write. "Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49, according to a Post analysis."

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are primarily the responsibility of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which "stumbled through a series of missteps as it confronted the biggest challenge in its 50-year history," the Post reports. "The agency was slow to respond as Mexican cartels supplanted Chinese producers, creating a massive illicit pharmaceutical industry that is now producing more fentanyl than ever. . . . The DEA said it is now taking direct aim at the Mexican cartels and the fentanyl epidemic" but "acknowledged that the government remained too focused on heroin at the onset of the crisis."

Other agencies also fell short. The Department of Homeland Security "failed to ramp up scanning and inspection technology at official crossings, instead channeling $11 billion toward the construction of a border wall that does little to stop fentanyl traffickers," the Post reports. "The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the executive branch office headed by the 'drug czar' and tasked with coordinating the government’s response, spent years fending off elimination and struggled to create an effective strategy to combat the scourge. The office lost its seat in the White House Cabinet and remains sidelined." David King, who runs a federal drug task force in San Diego, told the Post, “Law enforcement did the best it could. We can only do so much. But in Washington, they have been very slow to respond to this and now we are at the confluence of paralysis.”

Another bureaucratic failure: While "Narcotics agents say street-level demand for fentanyl is rising fast because so many new users are getting hooked," the Department of Health and Human Services "has not tracked the rise of fentanyl and does not know how many Americans are using it," the Post reports. That could stem from the fact that fentanyl is being added to other drugs, and is now involved in most overdoses. HHH's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "is unable to track overdose deaths in real-time," the Post notes. "Its published data is one year behind. . . . There is one federal system that collects both fatal and nonfatal overdose data in real-time in several regions of the country. But the system, called ODMAP, is kept from public view. A database launched by the drug czar’s office last week maps some nonfatal overdoses, which can highlight regions where deaths are likely to follow. Without comprehensive data, the federal government is driving blind." John Walters, drug czar for presidents of both parties, told the Post, “This is like tracking the epidemic by visiting cemeteries.”

The Post also has a story on why fentanyl is so deadly and a collection of earlier stories on the opioid epidemic. It promises five more stories, including how "a DEA agent tracked the source of fentanyl in Mormon country" and "Inside the daunting hunt for the ingredients of fentanyl and meth."

Rural voters stay split on climate change and government action; some in day-to-day trenches can't see big picture

Near the Mississippi River, Tower Rock is now accessible via foot. Rural
voters remain divided on cause of drought. (Photo by Jeff Roberson, AP)

As much of the nation completes a third year of drought, farmers remain conflicted on the degree to which climate change is to blame and whether Washington can be relied on to assist, reports Nuha Dolby of The Associated Press.

Raquel Krach is a rice farmer in the Sacramento Valley who told Dolby she planted considerably less rice because of the drought. Dolby reports, "The 53-year-old Democrat said it’s clear to her that climate change is responsible. But she says that notion is a deeply divisive one in her community." Kraus said, "Everyone is very clear on [the fact] that there’s no water and that there’s a drought. Whether they attribute that to climate change is different.”

An AP poll "shows that despite nationwide climate crises — from hurricanes to wildfires to droughts — there’s varying concern among voters about whether climate change is in their backyards," Dolby reports. "About three-quarters of urban voters are at least somewhat worried about the effects of climate change in their communities, compared to about 6 in 10 suburbanites and about half of small-town and rural voters."

While extreme weather has pummeled agriculture, Johnathan Hladik, the policy director at the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs, told Dolby that the nature of much work rural people do makes looking at the global scale difficult: “Farmers are experiencing climate change in a much different way than many more urban people do. It’s in every part of their job. It’s almost like it’s a day-to-day battle. You’re in the trenches every single day and it’s really hard to step back and look at it big-picture-size."

Sarah Jaynes, executive director of the Rural Democracy Initiative, which provides funding to groups that support progressive policies in rural areas, told Dolby that the overarching urban-rural divide has a lot to do with messaging issues: “People in rural areas and small towns are less likely to think that Democrats are fighting for people like them, so there’s a partisan trust issue.”

Pacific Gas & Electric needs $50 billion for rural wildfire prevention, but lacks a clear path to financing it

A PG&E crew sprayed retardant on a power pole near Big
Sur, Calif., earlier this year. (Photo by Peter Dasilva, Reuters)

Northern California's Pacific Gas and Electric needs to address the threat its electrical lines pose in sparking rural wildfires. Its prevention plan will cost billions that the company currently does not have, reports Kathrine Blunt of The Wall Street Journal.

In 2019, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection "to sort through an estimated $30 billion in liability costs stemming from a series of major fires. . . . The company’s lines have ignited more than 20 major fires in recent years, and it pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for its role in sparking the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise, Calif.," Blunt notes. "Regulations require it to bolster its system."

PG&E's bankruptcy restructuring has made it difficult for the company to make about $50 billion in investments over the next four years. Its first goal is a "10-year plan to bury 10,000 miles of power lines to safeguard them from sparking on contact with trees and other objects. The company has estimated it will cost roughly $20 billion," Blunt reports. "The company’s options are limited without substantially increasing customer rates, which are among the highest in the nation." PG&E provides electricity and natural gas to about 16 million people.

To address the first goal, the utility is seeking creative financing options. Chief Financial Officer Chris Foster told Blunt, "The company is considering ways to leverage federal funding available for energy and climate investments, including some allocated through the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed late last year.  . . . A quantitative constraint in our plan is how quickly we can get back to investment grade because it will make the debt that we have much cheaper for our customers."

Blunt writes, "The company doesn’t need to raise billions of dollars immediately. In the near term, analysts and investors say, it can likely rely on revenue from operations alongside its creative financing efforts." Joe Shaver, managing partner and chief investment officer at Electron Capital, an investment adviser focused on utility and energy companies, told Blunt that he expects PG&E’s share price to keep rising as it makes the investments needed to reduce wildfire risk. Shave said, “They’re not out of the woods yet, and there’s a lot more wood to chop."

As Democrats turn away from Iowa, some in party see ways to get more rural votes: show up, be humble, value work

Chart shows examples of Third Way analysis that found "most Democratic candidates improved on President Biden's 2020 performance in rural America — with some notable exceptions," such as Black nominees, Josh Kraushaar of Axios reports.

One step forward, two steps back, rural Democrats might say. The midterm elections showed that Democrats can still win elections with rural votes if they show up and ask for them, but the party's plan to end the Iowa caucuses' first place in the presidential nomination process "is not a great way to mend fences in rural America, where the Democratic brand has become virtually unmarketable," Storm Lake Times Pilot Editor Art Cullen writes in The New York Times, essentially rewriting a column that appeared in his weekly.

Art Cullen

For the locals, Cullen accepts some of the Democrats' rationale, but not "two frauds cooked up to put the caucuses to rest," one that the state party "messed up reporting results" in 2020. In both columns, he blames that on a cellphone app suggested by national Democrats, who rejected Iowa Democrats' plan.

For the national audience, Cullen seems to accept that "We are too white. . . . But diversity did have a chance here. Barack Obama was vaulted to the White House" in 2008 by a strong showing in rural caucuses, with the help of rural newspapers. "Iowa had no problem giving a gay man, Pete Buttigieg, and a Jewish democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders, the two top tickets out to New Hampshire last cycle."

Caucuses have virtues: "Candidates were forced to meet actual voters in village diners across the state. We took our vetting role seriously; you had better be ready to analyze Social Security’s actuarial prospects. . . . We did a decent, if imperfect, job of winnowing the field. Along with New Hampshire, we set things up so South Carolina could often become definitive, which it will be no longer." Cullen says "It's OK that South Carolina goes first," because having the first presidential voting hasn't paid off for Iowa: "Nothing really happened to stop the long decline as the state’s Main Streets withered, farmers disappeared and the undocumented dwell in the shadows."

Another view: Froma Harrop, whose column appears in some rural papers, says the change will be more democratic because most South Carolina Democrats are Black, and Black voters haven't had a big voice in the nomination process; and because the caucus process "favors activists who are not deterred by snow, cold or the dark and have the luxury of free evening hours. These folks are skilled in working the intricacies of the caucus process and often aggressive. Not favored are Democrats who work nights at Walmart, drive an Uber after hours and have little children to care for."

In a piece for The Hill, William S. Becker sees "signs that Democrats can build a more substantial base in rural America before 2024. All they have to do is think differently, talk differently and act differently." he cites a report from the Rural-Urban Bridge Initiative, "a group of experts brought together in 2021 by Appalachian farmer and author Anthony Flaccavento and several colleagues." They point out that "more than 40 percent of voters are rural in many battleground states," Becker writes. "Since 2006, their partisan allegiances have depended on which party pays more attention to them. Winning as little as 2 to 3 percent of their votes can change election outcomes."

Becker adds, "RUBI interviewed 50 rural candidates and researched recent studies on what makes candidates successful in rural areas. It distilled the results into 11 recommendations that seem more about respect and common courtesy than political strategy. They include listening more and talking less; respecting the local people’s knowledge and history; being humble and mission-driven rather than ego-driven; focusing on problem-solving; emphasizing involvement in local activities; treating voters of color as individuals rather than voting blocs, as well as not pandering to racism or gratuitously antagonizing white voters."

Becker also cites a piece in The American Prospect, in which Robert Kuttner writes, “Just showing up turns out to be hugely important, as a sign of respect and commitment;” and a post from Bryce Oates and farmer Jake Davis in The Pulse, a nonpartisan blog focused on North Carolina: “If Democrats truly want to increase their competitiveness in rural America, they should start now by putting working people at the center of their narrative while supporting bold, popular policies that would allow those people to live a good life.”

UPDATE: On NBC's "Meet the Press," Sen. Jon Tester said Democrats should focus their messaging “more on the things we’re doing for rural America,” such as infrastructure. The Montana Democrat "pointed to bills he’s working on that deal with big packers and meat consolidation, which he said would help cow and calf operators make a better living."

N.C. county in turmoil over sheriff who made racist remarks, was suspended and re-elected; state investigating election

UPDATE, Dec. 29: "Almost immediately after he was sworn in Thursday morning for what is supposed to be a four-year term, the local district attorney filed a petition in court seeking — for the second time — to have Greene permanently removed from office, the Durham Herald-Sun reports. Greene's swearing-in was "delayed by post-election protests and clouded by state and federal investigations," notes The News Reporter, which published the DA's petition.

Columbus County in North Carolina

Columbus County, North Carolina, continues its heated debate over Sheriff Jody Greene. The conflict began in September, "when a phone recording from 2019 was released to the media. During the call, Greene called deputies 'Black bastards' and threatened to fire those he believed were aligned with the previous sheriff who contested his 2018 win," reports Ivey Schofield of the Border Belt Independent, a nonprofit started by Les High, former owner of The News Reporter, a weekly in the county.

The anger at Greene, the county's first Republican sheriff, is not limited to his racist statement. Jon David, a Republican and prosecutor in Columbus County, "filed an amended petition to the court on Oct. 21 outlining several other allegations against Greene," Schofield writes. "They include having an affair with a detective in the sheriff’s office, firing a Black sergeant, trying to influence county commissioners and failing to ensure proper supervision at the jail." A judge suspended Greene, who resigned but was re-elected shortly thereafter.

The latest grind is the "election board’s ruling to deny two protests" requesting a hearing to determine if Greene was qualified to seek re-election. "Greene, who was suspended and then resigned in October as the county’s first Republican sheriff, won another term with 54% of the vote." The two residents have filed an appeal with the State Board of Elections.

The board "is investigating two complaints of potential intimidation of poll workers," Schofield reports. "Three precincts on Election Day had malfunctioning equipment and subsequently turned away voters. In response, the state board decided to keep one precinct open late."

Schofield writes, "The local NAACP held a meeting to discuss next steps. The meeting was advertised as a public event by the Columbus County Democratic Party, but a Border Belt Independent reporter who tried to attend was asked to leave by one of the greeters." She writes that Rev. Andy Anderson, who attended the meeting, told her "that the group discussed strategies to engage Columbus County residents across racial and economic divides."

News-media roundup: Kansas' Hayneses sell their papers; Gannett sells Iowa paper that's challenged by a startup; Cherry Road sells editor paper it bought from Rust in March

Cynthia and Steve Haynes tell their staff about the sale of their newspapers in a video
conference call with one of the buyers, Jesse Mullen, at left. (Photo from The Oberlin Herald)

Brothers Jesse and Lloyd Mullen of Mullen Newspapers have bought six community newspapers in northwestern Kansas from Steve and Cynthia Haynes, longtime industry leaders who are retiring at 74: The Oberlin Herald, the Colby Free Press, the Bird City Times, The Goodland Star-News, The Norton Star-Telegram and The St. Francis Herald, as well as The Country Advocate shopper. Steve Haynes was a nephew of William Allen White, the renowned publisher of The Emporia Gazette. He and Cynthia reflect on 42 years of community newspapering here.

Gannett Co. has sold the Burlington Hawk Eye to an affiliate of Community Media Group of West Frankfort, Ill., which has about 40 papers, stretching from Iowa to western New York, including nearby Fort Madison and Keokuk, Iowa, and Carthage, Ill. As the Hawk Eye declined under Gannett, the Burlington Beacon started up, and owner Jeff Allen tells The Rural Blog that its print circulation "is 2,500 and growing each week. We continue to sell out on the newsstand, and we're looking at adding days of publication." UPDATE, March 4: The Hawk Eye hawks itself.

Meanwhile, the decline continues at Gannett's St. Cloud Times, reports Axios Twin Cities: "As of Wednesday, the Times listed just three journalists — all reporters — on its staff page. As recently as 2014, the newsroom had 36 employees, and just a few months ago it listed nine staff." The St. Cloud metropolitan area has 200,000 people but no TV stations, limited radio news and two small weeklies, said St. Cloud University Department of Mass Communication Chair Dale Zacher, who called the Times a "ghost newspaper . . . a shell of its former self." He told Axios that there is little coverage of local government meetings and features about the community.

Kyle, Elizabeth, Olivia and Jordan Troutman (Prairie Photography)

Cherry Road Media, which has bought several Gannett papers, is selling The Cassville Democrat in Missouri to its editor, Kyle Troutman, and his wife Jordan, a reporter and a native of the area. "The Cassville Democrat has been corporately owned since 2004, and on Jan. 1, 2023, the 151-year-old publication will once again be locally owned," it announced. Cape Girardeau-based Rust Communications had owned it until March, when it was sold to CherryRoad. CEO Jeremy Gulban, said that when heard a young couple in Nebraska describe buying their hometown paper, “I realized that local ownership, when possible, is really the right answer for small community newspapers. Traditionally, this had been the model but it has not been utilized lately because of a lack of motivated, younger people who are willing to take on the challenge. I looked around our portfolio of newspapers and saw that the Cassville Democrat was a good fit for this model with Kyle and Jordan.”

UPDATE, Dec. 29: Cherry Road sold two other former Rust papers in the Ozarks to local owners: the Carroll County News and the Lovely County Citizen in northern Arkansas. The latter will be online only. The buyers are Managing Editor Scott Loftis, photogtrapher David Bell and former Berryville Chamber of Commerce director Bruce Johnson.

Western Kentucky newspapers are publishing special editions to mark the one-year anniversary of the deadly tornadoes that devastated several towns, the Kentucky Press Association reports. And KPA has scheduled a session at its convention on Jan. 27 on planning for disasters.

Longtime Kentucky sportswriter Keith Taylor became news editor of The Berea Citizen, then the weekly's publisher, and now he's the local volunteer of the year. He reflects on his recent career. 

A survey in Great Britain suggests that people don't trust the news industry because they don't understand it. About half said they didn't trust the news media, and only 39% trusted journalists. But that result was correlated with ow levels of news literacy: the ability to critically process, analyze and evaluate news. Respondents were especially unsure about how decisions are made in newsrooms, how editorial standards are applied and how regulation works," Aisha Majid reports for the Press Gazette.

Also from the U.K.: Five tips for increasing reader engagement and loyalty.

If you have a sliver of land, you can build a wildlife habitat

Photo by Andrea Lightfoot, Unsplash

Anyone with a bit of land and a can-do attitude can help Mother Nature and humankind. "When farmland is healthy, there is a balanced ecosystem with plenty of native plants and habitat for wildlife," reports Jodi Henke of Successful Farming. "This is called biodiversity, and all landowners can do something to improve it."

Jo Ann Baumgarten is director of Wild Farm Alliance, an organization that promotes a healthy, viable agriculture through the protection and restoration of nature. She told Henke that when there’s a lot of biodiversity, the benefits multiply: “Farmers can attract pollinators that help pollinate their crops, and they can attract beneficial insects that help to control pest insects. There are beneficial birds that eat pest insects, weed seeds, and even rodents. Bats are eating insects, and four-footed creatures are eating rodents.”

Before making any changes, take inventory. If you need help figuring out what is good and what isn't, "Extension services, resource conservation districts, and other local groups can offer technical assistance and get you started," Henke writes.

Baumgarten told Henke, "First, you need to look at the climate, the drainage, and soil conditions. If there are problem areas like erosion and invasive species, they should be dealt with first. One of the best things to do is to go someplace wild nearby, look at what’s growing there, and then try to emulate that."

Other substantial tips from Henke include: building a game bird preserve, creating a wild duck habitat, or building brush pile for smaller animals to enjoy.

More women and minorities are hunting, but community support is 'critical' to grow their ranks, study finds

A women hunting group gathers for 'Ladies Hunting
Weekend' in Ninemile, Mont. (Photo by Aj Williams)

As state wildlife officials worry that the decline in hunting is reducing the license fees on which they depend, a new study "examines the role of confidence in introducing and retaining hunters from historically underrepresented backgrounds to the sport," Aj Williams reports for The Daily Yonder.

Conducted at the University of Montana and published in the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, "The study concluded that attending community-building programs fosters confidence, also known as self-efficacy, while lowering barriers through forming connections with fellow hunters."

Researcher Ada Smith told Williams that most "hunter recruitment and retention programs have been focused on skill building, but our study shows that it is just as critical for efforts aimed at female hunters to also be geared toward fostering meaningful connections and community.” Women make up only 10% to 11% of all licensed hunters in the U.S.

Smith began hunting in 2019 and is in her third year hosting other female hunters on her family’s land. Williams writes, "Smith hopes to fast-track what many hunters gain through the years: a group of ‘buddies’ that can share hunting tips, resources such as gear and help each other through the process of learning to hunt and harvest."

“I feel equally excited about it [the research] because it resonates with things I’ve been dealing with as a beginner hunter, myself," Smith told Williams. "So, to look at the data then is pretty interesting."

Introducing new groups to hunting helps the sport in two ways: "The majority of federal funding for conservation efforts comes from taxes on guns and ammo. With a long-term trend of decreased hunting across the country, that money is dwindling as well." Williams reports. "For Smith and Metcalf [study researchers], this is why advocacy and outreach efforts have the potential to be impactful even beyond the sport, but to more people who have a stake in sustaining the environments in which they hunt."

Proponents of journalism-competition bill still voice hope; others say it's probably dead, prefer tax-credit idea

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which would let news outlets collectively bargain with Big Tech platforms for compensation for news content and set up an arbitration panel to resolve an deadlock, appears dead for this session of Congress, and with the House and Senate divided between the parties next session, it is probably dead, period.

“I think it looks pretty grim for the JCPA,” Report for America President Steven Waldman told the New England Newspaper and Press Association Thursday, the day after the JCPA was pulled from a must-pass defense bill. “I think that  was the best shot. . . . My focus right now is on the payroll tax credit, which I think has a better shot.”

Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy mentioned that alternative in the Dec. 7 edition of his Media Nation newsletter, writing, “I’m going to guess that that’s the last we’re going to hear about the JCPA because House Republicans oppose it, and time is running out for the Democratic majority to push it through. Maybe this will carve out space for a better bill, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, which would bolster local news by creating temporary tax credits for subscribers, advertisers and publishers.”

Advocates of the JCPA "remained hopeful that Congress might muster the political will to reintroduce it," Gretchen Peck reports for Editor & Publisher, quoting America’s Newspapers CEO Dean Ridings: "America's Newspapers appreciates the efforts of Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Kennedy and so many others to pass legislation that would enable the family and independently owned newspapers to collectively negotiate for the value of their content. We hope that other members of Congress will reconsider this important legislation that would balance the playing field and compensate our members for the incredible work they do, which is important to virtually every community in the U.S."

HD Media Vice President of News and Executive Editor Lee Wolverton told E&P, “I don’t know what the future of this legislation is, but I do know that the real answer is the one we are pursuing — a remedy in court that will snap Google and Facebook’s anti-competitive stranglehold on digital advertising revenue.” Peck notes, In January 2021, the West Virginia publisher filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Google and Facebook, charging them with monopolizing digital advertising.

Report for America picks several rural newsrooms to get reporters, and some other newsrooms for rural coverage

Report for America has picked 30 additional host newsrooms and opened applications for dozens of new reporting and photojournalism positions — with a wide variety of beats, including rural issues.

 

“We were blown away by the breadth of applications we received, and only wish we had the ability to bring on even more newsrooms this year,” said Kim Kleman, RFA's senior vice president.

 

When RFA asked newsrooms to define the most compelling gaps in their coverage, rural areas and issues were a big topic, along with local government, health care, climate and the environment, communities of color, and education and vocational training.

Among newsrooms selected were the twice-weekly Uvalde Leader-News, serving a Texas town still recovering from a school massacre; the Texas Tribune, for coverage of communities in the Permian Basin, a leading oil and gas field; the Acadiana Advocate, for coverage of rural communities in southern Louisiana; the Mississippi Free Press, for coverage of "educational equity across Mississippi;" The People Sentinel of Barnwell, S.C., for coverage of rural communities in the Low Country; WVIA, the public TV station in Scranton, Pa., for coverage of rural governments; WRMA and Virginia Public Media for coverage of rural health care; and the Cape Gazette of Lewes, Del., for coverage of the town of Milford.

With the newsroom selections made, RFA says it is seeking "talented, service-minded reporters and photographers" for a two-year program (with an option for three years) with a wide range of benefits, including training and mentoring. RFA pays half the salary and gives the newsroom three to six candidates to choose from. 

RFA President Steven Waldman told the New England Newspaper and Press Association Thursday that a fourth of all slots in the last round went to rural newsrooms. "That is a high priority for Report for America," he said, adding that rural America needs more philanthropic interest to back such efforts.

Charles Sennott, founder and editor-in-chief of the Ground Truth Project, chief sponsor of RFA, said in his weekly report, "If you know someone who can benefit from this opportunity, invite them to apply here. Little by little we are bringing reporters back to rural areas and restoring the news ecosystem for millions of Americans, but we can’t do it without your support. Help us make the map of news deserts in America a thing of the past."

Family cemeteries offer a window into the past, but many if not most are not well tended; who will care for them?

The Swinford Cemetery in Harrison County, Kentucky, is maintained well. (Photo by Michael Swensen)

Jane Thomas honors her grandfather by tending the
family cemetery and beekeeping. (Photo by Jesse Barber)

Many if not most old family cemeteries have been long neglected, but they offer history and family connections that could be honored, Sarah Hume of Denison University writes for the Louisville Courier Journal. She received the Mary Withers Rural Writing Fellowship from Boyd's Station, a nonprofit arts and journalism residency program in Harrison County, Kentucky.

There are hundreds of family cemeteries "in Harrison County and across Kentucky," Hume writes. "Some are hidden behind barns, some prominently placed in front of homes. Others are tucked into quiet forests that were once active farms or churchyards." But for financial and ecological reasons, more Americans are choosing cremation, so family grave plots and cemeteries may become relics of the past, especially in rural areas that are losing population.

The National Funeral Directors Association estimates that by 2040, nearly 80% of Americans will choose cremation. "One of these days, these are going to be gone,” Denny Lipscombe, a local historian who researches cemeteries in Harrison County, told Hume. “And there needs to be some kind of documentation that these are here.” Lipscombe's life work became documenting family cemeteries with the details of who lived there and what they did, Hume writes.

Hume tells the story of Jane Thomas, who restored her family cemetery when she moved back to Harrison County "to care for her sick father . . . Thomas remembered her grandfather had once kept bees to make honey. She decided to start the practice again. . . . When she cares for the bees, she sometimes leans down to read the inscriptions on the grave markers."

Family cemeteries may become obsolete, but caring for them may offer solace and grace to some. “There’s a feeling of completion. Like full circle, maybe,” Thomas told Hume. “And I never stop thinking about the fact that I stand on their shoulders. What they went through, and what they endured, and what they did, made it possible for me to be.”

Feds plan to allow addiction-treatment drug to be prescribed via telehealth, since Congress seems unlikely to do so

Congress seems unlikely to relax the rules for prescribing Suboxone (buprenorphine), a drug that helps addicts kick opioids, so the Biden administration plans to do it at least temporarily: by regulation, under the powers it has under the public-health emergency for the Covid-19 pandemic. 

A White House official told Inside Telehealth that the administration will seek public comment “hopefully very soon” on its plan to allow Suboxone to be prescribed via telemedicine, "as stakeholders appear to face an uphill battle in getting Congress to extend a COVID-19 pandemic waiver of . . . in-person prescribing requirements for controlled substances," Cara Smith reports. 

"Beth Connolly, assistant director of public health at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said . . . Wednesday evening that the administration is making the move to prevent people from losing access to the drug used to treat opioid use disorder."

The administration has suggested congressional action might be needed "to allow controlled substances to be prescribed via telehealth, lobbyists and research organizations have said it is within the Drug Enforcement Administration’s regulatory power," Smith reports. "A temporary waiver of the in-person prescribing requirements for controlled substances that was put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic expires when the public health emergency ends, expected to be in mid-April," though the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services "will reimburse for audio-only initiation of buprenorphine through the end of 2023."

The administration may face internal resistance from the DEA. Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services began allowing most medical providers to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid-use disorder without having to obtain special training, but the DEA's aggressive tactics against pharmacies suspected of improperly dispensing the drug may dissuade stores from carrying it, making prescription filling more difficult.

It's cardboard season; ever wonder where it all comes from?

A machine the size of a football field makes paper that becomes boxes. (Photo by Christopher Payne, The New York Times)

The people of Windsor, Wisconsin, pop. 8,000, rejoiced when the village's newsletter announced it would have a separate bin for cardboard recycling, all the more important when more Christmas gifts are bought online and shipped. But where does all that cardboard come from?

The corrugated-paper industry runs trees through a marathon of steps before a nifty box emerges, writes Matthew Shaer of The New York Times: "Before it was the cardboard on your doorstep, it was coarse brown paper, and before it was paper, it was a river of hot pulp, and before it was a river, it was a tree. Probably a Pinus taeda, or loblolly pine, a slender conifer native to the Southeastern United States." 

Shaer met up with Alex Singleton, a manager for International Paper, which produces a third of U.S. boxes. His mission "is to source enough loblollies to help keep IP’s production lines humming." He told Shaer, “You’re sort of always in a race. You learn to get creative.” Singleton manages a group of foresters who "spend much of their time zipping around the Southeast by pickup, using a proprietary smartphone app to monitor tracts of harvestable woodland," Shaer writes.

In the woodyard, the creation begins: "A crane was removing timber from a log truck and feeding it into the bladed mouth of a cylindrical machine known as a debarking drum. . . . It churned and chewed and spit the denuded trees from its rear end," Shaer writes. "Another masticating machine, this one a steel chipper. In went the debarked trees, out came a spray of loblolly pine. . . . chips from the woodyard were entering what’s known as the kraft process (the German word for 'strength')."

Shaer describes the 'paper machine,' which "stretched across almost the entire mill floor and trembled like a space shuttle just before liftoff. . . . Pulp sluiced in and cascaded onto the 'former,' where it was flattened into a paper-like consistency." There are more steps, and the end product is corrugated: "If you’ve stopped to look at an individual panel of corrugate and noticed its resemblance to a deli sandwich. There’s a top and a bottom, and between them is a bunch of ridged or diagonally reinforced filler called 'fluting.' That fluting is what gives a cardboard box its protective quality; without its flutes, corrugate wouldn’t be corrugate at all — it would just be containerboard."

The corrugated cardboard industry is booming, Shaer reports: "In 2021, Amazon shipped $470 billion of goods globally, in an estimated 7.7 billion packages." Happy unpacking!

Income gap between 'Old West' and 'New West' counties grows, as the rich get richer, Brigham Young study shows

Snowbasin Resort in Huntsville, Utah, pop. 700 (TripAdvisor)

Researchers at Brigham Young University released research findings on a two-part study of income changes in Western areas. The study, which included the states of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico, "found increasing gaps between less wealthy 'Old West' counties that are typically known for mining, farming and ranching, and the wealthier 'New West' counties that are known for recreational amenities, such as ski resorts, biking and hiking trails and natural beauty," reports Cassidy Wixom of  KSL.com in Salt Lake City.

Twenty years ago, two geography professors, "Samuel Otterstrom and Matthew Shumway, conducted an initial study using IRS county-migration data that included income to look at how people and money were moving in and out of counties in the Mountain West. Two decades later, they completed a follow-up study as part of a project for BYU's Charles Redd Center for Western Studies and it was published in Professional Geographer. . . . The data showed that a lot of 'New West' counties had increased numbers of rich people moving in and poor people moving out."

Otterstrom told Wixom, "There were some counties in the study that were considered rural 20 years ago, but because of migration and income change, are now classified as urban counties. . . . Sometimes that rise in cost of living will price out the locals, people who have been there for a while — because they can't afford to live in that town."

Wixom reports, "Other areas, typically the 'Old West' counties, experienced little change in their population and are having to innovate in farming practices to make their economy grow."

The width of the income divide caught the researchers off-guard. Otterstrom told Wixom: "It is surprising just how much these rural communities have grown, compared to other areas. 'New West' income increase by $13 billion from 2012-2019, but 'Old West' counties saw growth up to $342 million, but others lost up to $359 million . . . If you look at the difference, it just totally dwarfs everything. Seeing how migration changed income . . . This data just shows that the rich get richer."

New podcast aims for 'a different discourse' about rural U.S.

(Photo by Judith Prins, Unsplashed)

There's a lot more to "rural" than row-crop farmers, shriveling towns and political conservatism. There are smart people raising the world's food, driving industry changes and finding ways to reinvigorate their hometowns. That spirit of growth and ingenuity is core to a new podcast from The Brookings Institution, "Reimagine Rural," reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder.

"The narrative that we often hear about rural America is one of decline or political divisions," podcast leader Tony Pipa, senior fellow at the institution's Center for Sustainable Development, told Eaton. "And to my mind, there is a lot of innovation, a lot of creativity, and a lot of people working together in rural America. We’re not hearing about that."

The first podcast episode presents Shamokin, Pennsylvania, a coal community where Pipa went to elementary school. He gave Eaton some highlights: “It’s a town that’s been on a long, slow, steady decline since the 1960s when anthracite coal left . . . However, through mine reclamation, they have pieced together 8,000 acres and turned it into a park for motorized vehicles like ATVs and motorcycles. . . . I was really looking for places where there’s forward momentum, and there’s a group of people who are working together to kind of create that vision and move forward. I wanted to show a diversity of places. And show off the diversity of rural America.”

The podcast offers examples of how rural communities can move forward. "Things need to start at the local level," Pipa told Eaton. "We have to be willing to be patient and invest patiently over time . . . include the role of the private sector as well as a theme around the sense of hope for the long haul."

The podcast hopes to catch the ears of policymakers. Pipa said, "I hope that sets us into a different discourse and dialogue, even politically, on what it means to be rural and the value that rural America provides to the United States as a whole."

Black cowboys and cowgirls are not unusual in California

A touring event for Black cowboys and cowgirls from across
California and the nation. (Photo by Jason Armond, Los Angeles Times)

Actors like the late John Wayne are considered quintessential American cowboys, but that view may be changing. "Black cowboys and cowgirls are finally getting their moment to shine in the mainstream," writes Tyrone Beason of the Los Angeles Times. "The recent films 'Nope,' 'The Harder They Fall' and 'Concrete Cowboy' have burned images of Black ranchers, settlers and riders into the public’s consciousness."

Thirty years ago, seeing a Black cowboy was thought 'odd' but "Ron Jennings grew up in Los Angeles, but he’s all country, right down to his cowboy hat and folksy twang," Beason writes. "The 42-year-old smiles when recounting the strange looks he got from fellow passengers during bus rides to his grandfather’s horse stable in Gardena or to participate in rodeos at Griffith Park when he was a teen. The cowboy hat, the bell clanging against the rodeo gear in his bull bag — he came across as an oddity in the city, even more so because he is Black." 

In California, there are Black rodeos that attract African Americans from all over the nation: "At the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo’s latest stop in Los Angeles, not only are all of the cowboys and cowgirls Black — so are most of the 3,500 spectators," Beason reports. "The air smells of catfish frying and barbecue simmering."

Spectators come from all over to enjoy horses and history. Kairis Chiaji, who belongs to a Black trail riding club outside Sacramento, told Beason, "There’s something special about Black people coming together to revel in this heritage. In these spaces, it’s safe to be us.” Beason writes, "Most of those gathered express a determination to expose Americans to another facet of the West — and the Black experience."

Byron Levy, whose wife also rides, told Beason: “What’s televised about our culture, it’s always negative — Black-on-Black murders, but none of this is ever televised — how we get together with four or five hundred Black cowboys and cowgirls and there’s no incidents. . . . Al Sharpton don’t have to show up."