First tribally affiliated medical school in the U.S. creates a life-changing partnership for under-served communities

Medical students stand outside the College of Osteopathic Medicine
at the Cherokee Nation. (Photo by Oklahoma State University)

Nearly a decade in the making, Oklahoma State University and the Cherokee Nation have opened the country’s first tribally affiliated medical school. "The 84,000 square foot facility in Tahlequah officially opened its doors in early 2021, following half a year of virtual classes for the college’s first cohort of students," reports Gretel Kauffman for Rural Health Information Hub. "The facility itself was paid for by the Cherokee Nation, while OSU staffed the college and provided the educational technology. The school had been nearly a decade in the making, with conversations between OSU and the Cherokee Nation starting in 2012."

Amid a national physician shortage, "Oklahoma has one of the most severe doctor shortages in the nation, ranking 48th for number of active physicians per capita in 2022," Kauffman writes, "In rural parts of the state, it isn’t uncommon for a county to have one primary care provider, said Natasha Bray, dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation. While telehealth has proven to be a helpful tool for some communities, it isn’t a reliable alternative for patients who lack access to high-speed internet, Bray said — and isn’t a direct substitute for in-person care."

Bray told Kauffman, "All people deserve a health-care provider who’s going to be able to be their partner and be present with them. The development of that relationship is so critical to building trust and improving care in our rural communities." Physicians who are "homegrown" are more likely to embrace rural life. Bray said, "They understand all that is amazing about living in a rural community, and they understand what the challenges are. They’re able to successfully build a practice and care for their community because they have an understanding of what’s involved in it.”

Only one in five of the students are Native American, Kauffman reports: "Roughly half hail from rural Oklahoma. Those percentages are in stark contrast to other medical schools across the U.S., where less than 5 percent of students come from rural backgrounds; that percentage drops to less than 0.5 percent for rural students from under-represented racial or ethnic minority groups. Meanwhile, American Indian and Alaska Native students account for less than 1 percent of medical students nationwide."

Bray explained the spirit of the school to Kaufmann: “When we look at success in medical education, one of the important components for avoiding burnout is your sense of belonging within a community. Having people who share your mission, your values, and your goals is extremely important — and that translates not only to individual well-being, but also to academic success.” Cassie McCoy, a second-year student, told Kauffman, “There is just this natural sense of family, and I think OSU does a really good job of promoting that and creating a culture where we can ask each other for help. You just feel that community, that sense of pride and belonging.”

Dept. of Transportation issues 12 rural grants as Biden-Harris administration reaches for more rural voters

Traffic builds on West Reserve Drive in Kalispell, Mt.
(Photo by Casey Kreider, Daily Inter Lake)

In mid-December, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a dozen grants for rural communities, and "strategists within the Democratic Party say it’s one way the Biden-Harris administration is getting out a message to rural voters," reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder. "The grants were announced in a press release that touted how the 12 projects would improve and expand transportation infrastructure in rural communities across the United States."

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a news release, "Infrastructure investments haven’t always reached rural America, leaving far too many roads, bridges, and other parts of the transportation system across our country in disrepair. Today’s announcement is one of many ways this administration is delivering the investments that rural communities have gone without for far too long, modernizing transportation, creating economic opportunity, and making life better for millions of people.'"

One project is a Bureau of Indian Affairs improvement of South Dakota Route 7, Eaton reports: "In Todd County — which is completely within the borders of the Rosebud Indian Reservation – USDOT is investing $26.2 million in the reconstruction of approximately 24 miles of roadway stretching from US Route 18 to US Route 83."

In Kalispell, Montana, USDOT is "investing $25 million in pedestrian and road safety and economic mobility," Eaton notes. Bob Lombardi, who has worked for Democratic Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, told Eaton, “In Montana, they drive for a long distance for basketball games, football games between the Bobcats and Grizzlies. So people know how important it is, especially in rural areas. And just when we had a … cold snap, it was hugely important to make sure those roads were open not only for Montanans to shop but also for utility workers.”

Teresa Purcell, who was senior rural-engagement adviser for the Democratic Party during the recent midterm elections, told Eaton that "it’s important for the Biden-Harris administration to showcase the 'transformational investments in rural America' taking place." Purcell told Eaton that it's not as simple as announcing grants: “It’s also, how are we making sure that, frankly, the county commissioners and elected officials who are choosing not to apply for those grants are held accountable to turning away money that will actually help their communities thrive."

Repurposing sewage can be environmentally friendly, but it's objectionable to some, and has to be carefully managed

Old-time ad for Milwaukee's processed sewage sludge

Recycle. Reuse. Repurpose. Repeat. Or so goes the ever-living mantra. "The precepts of circular economy—reusing water, using biodegradable plastic, composting food leftovers so they can be returned to the soil rather than become landfill—are among the hottest ideas of our century," reports Lina Zeldovich for JSTOR Daily. "But what about recycling what our food becomes after we eat it? Yes, that means excrement, a critical substance in the thoroughly functioning circular economy, seems to be left out of the equation. . . . Our industrial treatment systems separate the so-called biosolids out of the sewage stream, purify the water, and release it back to nature, but they rarely extract these essential nutrients in the process. Instead of fertilizing the fields then, the nutrients fertilize the waterways—and wreak havoc in them."

A cycle of environmental problems ensues, Zeldovich reports: "The nutrients overfertilize the water, causing what scientists call eutrophication or nitrogen overloading, which fuels toxic algae blooms, destroys coastal marshes, kills mangrove forests, and smothers corals. What happens with the remaining biosolids—a euphemism for the malodorous, pathogen-infested black muck—is equally ugly. Sometimes it’s burned, releasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. "

Zeldovich writes, "We must figure out how to return our sludge back to land. The necessary tools already exist to do so Even better, there are technologies that turn human waste into humanure. Zeldovich provides an surprising old example: "Milorganite: Human-Made in Milwaukee Since 1925. In 1914, the Milwaukee Sewerage Commission began to experiment with a new approach for wastewater treatment." A treatment plant that opened in 1925 was the first in the nation "to tap into nature’s power to clean wastewater. But while these bacteria decomposed excrement, the gooey and gunky end product left behind still needed to be dealt with. Agronomist Oyvind Juul Noer realized that the muck contained high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium . . . the key fertilizers plants need to grow. Compared to manure and chemical fertilizer, this microbe-processed sludge produced superior growth results. Milwaukee sewage authorities figured out how to dry and process the muck into pellets and began churning out this human-made fertilizer."

Milwaukee's process has been copied in many places, and there have been many public objections to farmers' use of it. "The presence of potentially toxic metals is the main factor that limits such use," says a 2016 paper in the journal Circular Economy and Sustainability. "Many techniques have been employed in attempt to remove these toxic metals, including physical, chemical, and biological treatments, but the high cost of the physical and chemical treatments, as well as the risk of causing secondary pollution, makes this type of sewage-sludge treatment an unsatisfactory option. Therefore, removing toxic metals through biological treatments has become an increasingly popular choice, as such treatments have been shown to be the most economically and environmentally beneficial methods."

There are other challenges to using human waste as fertilizer, including "the number of pathogens it contained—an issue modern tech addresses," Zeldovich writes. "A newer concern is the problem of hormones, antibiotics, and PFAS. . . . But the sewage industry is already working on ways to address these. Even the most stable chemical compounds fall apart under high temperatures and pressures; called pyrolysis, one such process may be the path to their destruction." Environmental experts say proper management, including careful application, is essential to use of sewage sludge on farms.

JSTOR Daily says it is "an online publication that contextualizes current events with scholarship." Its parent platform is a "digital library of academic journals, books, images, primary sources, research reports, and other material."

Church affiliation keeps falling, except nondenominational; if a denomination, it would be largest Protestant one in U.S.

Photo by Nicholas Smith, Getty Images, via Pew Research Center

Americans' "church membership, church attendance and belief in God all declined during the pandemic years," but the growing membership in nondenominational Christian churches gave that largely unorganized group its first plurality among U.S. believers, Daniel de Visé writes for The Hill's "Changing America" series. 

"At least one-fifth of Americans today embrace no religion at all," DeVisé notes, citing polls. "A similar share tell pollsters they do not believe in God, an all-time high. The lone, striking counter-trend is a steep rise in nondenominational Protestants." They became a plurality among U.S. Protestants in 2021, "signaling a new era of churches and clergies untethered from religious tradition."

DeVisé reports, "Since the 1970s, the share of Americans who identified as Baptists, Methodists and other Protestant denominations has slipped from more than 30 percent to around 10 percent. In the same span, the share of nondenominational Protestants has exploded. The 2020 U.S. Religion Census found 6.5 million more nondenominational congregants and thousands more churches than in 2010." DeVisé quotes Daniel Silliman, writing in Christianity Today: “If ‘nondenominational’ were a denomination, it would be the largest Protestant one, claiming more than 13 percent of churchgoers in America.”

This is a fundamental change in a key element of American society. DeVisé notes, "Multigenerational communities formed around the Baptist and Methodist churches that dominated town squares for generations. By contrast, nondenominational churches often thrive on their otherness, attracting congregants who mistrust ancient American institutions."

The pandemic spurred the decline of traditional church affiliation. "In-person church attendance plummeted by 45 percent in the pandemic, according to an ABC News analysis," DeVisé reports. "Most churches have reopened, but not all congregants have returned. . . . The share of Americans who belong to churches dipped below half in 2020, a historic low, according to Gallup polling."

At the same time, many of those who say they identify with no religion say they consider religion important in their lives, DeVisé reports.

Stay connected to stay relevant, veteran editor advises

By Jim Pumarlo

Surviving in today’s fractured media landscape depends on your ability to identify, collect and deliver the relevant community news. That job becomes more challenging if readers become frustrated in their attempts to connect with reporters.

The normal channels of communication took a serious hit during Covid-19, as isolation was the norm for reporters and news sources alike. Though the worst of the pandemic is behind us, communication remains splintered in many circles.

Jim Pumarlo

I encourage newspapers to put at the top of their New Year’s resolutions: Make it easy for readers to connect with you.

I’m passionate in my belief that community newspapers can still compete in today’s communications dynamics – if they stick to and excel in the basics. That means owning the franchise for aggressive reporting of local news. That will occur only if readers have a direct pipeline to editors and reporters.

I understand the important and necessary role of social media both in collecting and reporting the news – in connecting with readers. Social media were integral when I led communications and media relations for a statewide business advocacy organization.

But nothing replaces direct, one-on-one conversation. It’s truly amazing the barriers that many newspapers place between themselves and their readers – their news sources.

I routinely surf a variety of websites, often looking for contact information. If I can’t track it down within five minutes, I likely give up. If I am successful, the frustration often continues with no phone numbers. Some companies may list a general number, and we’ve all been there. We punch numerous extensions, hoping to get a live voice with someone who can assist.

Why can’t we make it simpler? Here are a handful of tips from someone who has sat on both sides of the editor’s desk:

• Post your contact information or a link to the listing – prominently – on the home page of your website. Include phone numbers as well as email addresses.
• Provide the direct phone numbers and individual email addresses for staff, if available. Readers have no assurance that a general voice mail or email boxes are regularly monitored and messages forwarded to appropriate staff. List cell phones.
• Keep contact information current. If you have voice mail, change recordings daily so readers know whether you are on the job and whether you are monitoring messages. Ditto for email; use your “out of office” message when applicable.
• If you must use automated phone answering services during regular business hours, callers still should have an opportunity to connect to a “live voice.”
• Be responsive to customers. Be prompt in returning phone or email inquiries whether the message is sent directly to an individual or submitted through an online form.
• Phone calls translate into a conversation, an instant exchange of ideas. You may well miss a chance for a great story if the telephone is your communication of last resort.
• Listing cell phone numbers is essential as many companies have eliminated physical offices or greatly reduced hours. Remote offices have become the norm in today’s work environment.

I can hear the naysayers who resist being available 24/7. I recall the days before cell phones and social media when some editors and publishers had unlisted home phones. They didn’t want to be bothered “after hours,” especially by an upset customer. I welcomed all calls – no matter the hour and no matter the reason. I welcomed the fact that our newspaper was on someone’s mind at all hours of the day.

Remember, while some may view the calls as an interruption in their personal schedules, I viewed them as an opportunity – to resolve a delivery issue, to accept an ad, to explore a potential news story. Those are the connections that keep you relevant to your communities.

Jim Pumarlo is former editor of the Red Wing (Minn.) Republican Eagle. He writes, speaks and provides training on community newsroom success strategies and is author of three books on community news coverage He is at www.pumarlo.com and jim@pumarlo.com.

News-media roundup: Tue. webinar on newsroom mental health; how do news outlets regain the trust of the public?

In an analytical and wide-ranging editorial, the Dallas Morning News offers some ideas for restoring public trust in the news media, which it blames partly on "the decline of local news organizations." The paper calls for mroe education of the public about how news media work, and "putting all publishers on more equal regulatory footing, whether they are social media companies or television stations or newspapers." That's an allusion to social media, which the editorial says have disconnected Americans from their news sources by becoming funnels and filters for fact-finding journalism. They have also blurred the distinctions beyween fact and opinion, and blurred the definition of journalism. Here's a little "elevator speech" that every news outlet could endorse, share, post and repost: "The news business pays for journalism, which practices a discpline of verification; we tell you how we know something, or we attribute it to someone, and we're mainly about fact, not opinion. Social media are mainly about opinion, and have little or no discipline or verification; on which sort of media should you rely for facts?" --Al Cross, professor and director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky

A free webinar at noon ET Tuesday, Jan. 17 will help journalists address, improve and prioritize mental health in the newsroom. Panelists are Scott Blanchard, director of journalism at WITF in Harrisburg, Pa.; Sewell Chan, editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune; Dr. Elana Newman, research director at the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma at the University of Tulsa; and Dave Seglins, an investigative journalist and well-being champion at CBC News. Naseem Miller, senior health editor at The Journalist's Resource, the webinar's sponsor, will moderate. Registration is required.

Gannett Co. is closing ThisWeek Community News, a group of newspapers serving suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, Axios Columbus reports. "The award-winning newspapers are not just the modest stalwarts of convenience store news racks, but also some of the few remaining outlets keeping the powerful institutions in their areas, like city halls and police departments, accountable," Axios reports. "An unspecified number of ThisWeek staffers are being laid off, a Gannett spokesperson tells Axios, while others will fold into the Columbus Dispatch's high-school sports desk.

E.W. Scripps Co. has placed six veteran print journalists in its broadcast newsrooms, launching its Google-backed Journalism Journey Initiative to keep accomplished journalists reporting by redeploying them on video-driven platforms. The two-year program will provide training and support. The six and their stations are: Angelika Albaladejo, a widely published freelancer, to KMGH, Denver; Mary Chao from The Bergen Record to Scripps News of New York and New Jersey; Jessica De Leon from the Bradenton Herald, to WFTS, Tampa; Bryan Horwath from the Las Vegas Sun to KTNV, Las Vegas; Daniel Lathrop from the Des Moines Register to Scripps News in Iowa; and Anne Ryman from The Arizona Republic to KNXV, Phoenix. The Journalism Journey Initiative plans to recruit a second cohort this year; more information is here.

Farm Bureau backs farm-program boost, alliance with food advocates to pass Farm Bill as GOP plans non-defense cuts

The nation's largest organization of farmers and ranchers wants the new Farm Bill to expand funding for federal agriculture programs but that "may run into a roadblock in the House of Representatives," where Republicans in a new but thin majority "are calling for cutting up to 25% of spending in federal non-defense agencies," Chris Clayton reports for DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

American Farm Bureau Federation convention delegates in Puerto Rico "voted Tuesday to expand baseline funding for the Farm Bill and ask Congress to develop more flexible disaster-relief programs," Clayton notes. Most Farm Bill money funds nutrtion programs run by the Department of Agriculture, by far the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps. An alliance of farm and nutrition advocates has been key to passing farm and food programs, and delegates' voters confirmed that the lobbying interests "should stick together to get a Farm Bill passed," Clayton reports: Delegates "approved new policy to support access to nutrition programs including connecting farms directly with food banks, increasing the number of SNAP-approved food sales outlets, and other efforts to make produce available to families living in food deserts."

There will be less presure to get a five-year Farm Bill passed by Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year, than in past cases, because the current law lets nutrition and crop-insurance programs continue, DTN Political Correspondent Jerry Hagstrom reports.

On other issues, the delegates "also want to see more crop insurance options for specialty crops" and "more transparency" in the federal milk-pricing system," a Farm Bureau press release said. "Changes they would like to see in milk programs include more USDA audits of processing costs to ensure data remains accurate," Clayton reports. "Farm Bureau would also like to see the Federal Milk Marketing Orders voting procedure changed that would require 'cooperatives to communicate more clearly with members regarding proposed changes'."

Whom does Farm Bureau represent? AFBF said a poll of the 334 delegates found that 99% of those who cast votes "operate family farms and almost 65% represent small- to mid-size farms as defined by USDA," Clayton reports.

Texas and other conservative states embrace wind power, other renewables without acknowledging climate change

Illustration for The Economist by Brett Ryder

Red states are embracing wind power without acknowledging climate change. The Energy Information Administration predicts Texas will generate more electricity this year from renewables than from natural gas, but Texas conservatives are, well, conservative about terminology. “When someone says we are embracing green energy, it’s like shoving an ice pick through our ears,” says Matt Welch, head of Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation, told The Economist. “We just say clean energy.”

Welch spoke to The Economist's anonymous "Schumpeter" columnist, who writes, "You might think that California, which talks a good game about climate change and green energy, is on the forefront of renewables development. But Texas is far ahead." A study for Welch’s group found that in the second quarter of 2022, Texas "had three times more wind, solar and battery storage under construction than California."

That doesn't sit well with some in the energy trade for which Texas is known, oil and natural gas. "It is from their own Republican ranks that wind-energy ranchers face the most antagonism—especially from fossil-fuel producers who fear being undercut by renewables," Schumpeter reports. "Organizations like the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which lobbies on behalf of oil and gas, and the Texas Landowners Coalition, backed by right-wing beneficiaries of the fracking boom, are fighting tooth and nail to curb wind development. The TPPF’s battle extends to proposed offshore wind farms as far away as New England."

With money from the bill Democrats dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, Texas "expects to attract big hydrogen and carbon-sequestration projects. Other Republican states like Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee are welcoming billions of dollars of clean-energy investments spurred by the IRA," Schumpeter writes. "Even conservative businesses that lobby strongly for fossil fuels hope to benefit from the energy transition. For example, Koch Industries . . . supported a big investment by Freyr, a Norwegian firm, in a battery factory in Georgia that will benefit from the law. The upshot is that there are ways to promote clean energy that do not rely on convincing climate skeptics that they are bonkers. A better sales pitch may be to play up the cost advantages of renewables rather than the climate benefits, emphasise their contribution to cutting air pollution rather than carbon emissions, and acknowledge that, owing to intermittency factors, natural gas may have a role to play in power generation for years to come."

University of Texas energy professor Michael Webber told Schumpeter, “It’s not unusual for Texas to do the right thing for all the wrong reasons.” John Davis, a rancher near Austin, noted that many others in Texas have benefited from oil and gas for generations. Finally, he said, “We struck wind.”

Drought-crippled California seeks to capture more water with an 'audacious' plan for small water-capture projects

Trees submerged in the Los Angeles River during flooding in Long
Beach on Tuesday. (Photo by Mette Lampcov, The New York Times)

California has water problems that began with a three-year drought followed by massive storms and flooding. In Los Angeles, "some 8.4 billion gallons were impounded behind 14 large dams, easing floods and building up valuable stores of water for the drier summer months ahead," reports Ralph Vartabedian of The New York Times. "But in a state that is weathering a crippling, multiyear drought, much larger streams of water — estimated at tens of billions of gallons — have been rushing in recent days straight into the Pacific Ocean, a devastating conundrum for a state whose future depends on holding on to any drop it can."

To slurp up every bit of moisture, L.A. County is "embarking on a radical and risky experiment to see if it can increase supply in a different way: a $300 million-per-year program that would build hundreds of small water-capture projects over the next 30 to 50 years that could eventually retain as much water as the mountain dams," Vartabedian writes. Mark Pestrella, executive director of Los Angeles County Public Works, told Vartabedian, "It is audacious what we are proposing, and it’s gigantic.”

Vartabedian reports: "The urgency of the situation has become apparent with the series of atmospheric rivers that have killed at least 18 people since late December. . . . Some hydrological experts say the new green approach to capturing more of Southern California’s rainfall will be expensive and may deliver less than expected. . . . The program is a reflection of the desperate need for new sources of water in a state that tapped most of its easy supplies long ago, leaving tough choices that will affect future lifestyles, landscapes, the economy and public health."

There are critics of the ambitious plan. Bruce Reznik, executive director of the environmental group Los Angeles Waterkeeper and chairman of the capture program’s scoring committee, "said the goal of capturing 300,000 acre-feet of water per year (the same amount currently captured by dams) has to work or Los Angeles will face more critical water shortages," Vartabedian reports. "The county’s 30- to 50-year timeline for completing the program is too slow, he added."

California is seeking multiple options to capture water that is now being lost: "After years of deadly drought, images of floodwaters rushing into the ocean as people watch helplessly has been a cruel irony," Vartabedian notes. Pestrella told Vartabedian, "The program is the largest and most technically advanced effort to undertake small water capture in the world, involving the most difficult terrain."

'We have survived the full body slam,' Iowa editor writes, reviewing what we have endured the past three years

Full body slam with Tom and Jerry (Gif, Tenor)

By Art Cullen, Editor
Storm Lake Times Pilot

What a weird run we’ve been on the past few years with the double-whammy of Covid-19 and Donald Trump.

The aftershocks of deep changes to our lives reverberate still.

The House finally elected a speaker with the 15th ballot on the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Trump had to call in to the House floor on Kevin McCarthy’s behalf. Images of Trump standing on the veranda at the White House in an orange glow after his release from the hospital with Covid rose to mind. He just stood there, suggesting invincibility yet looking as if he might fall over.

Storm Lake was getting walloped by the pandemic. People were dying every week. The meatpacking plants were ravaged. Walmart ran out of toilet paper overnight. Newell-Fonda won the girls state tournament again, and then that was all she wrote. Some businesses went under. We nearly did. The government came out with the biggest relief program since the Great Depression. Most of us survived because of it.

During this time Steve King, our congressman for 20 years, was unseated in a Republican primary because of his comments on race and culture. JD Scholten, who nearly beat King in 2018, was forced to stage drive-in campaign events at Frank Starr Park, where he spoke into a microphone and diehards in cars tuned in on FM radio. Scholten got walloped by Randy Feenstra, a more polite version of King.

There were those daily Covid briefings where Trump would contradict the medical experts standing next to him as the president talked up his latest snake-oil cure.

You couldn’t go to church. Catholics yearned for Holy Communion. Who would have thought you could not get communion? Michelle Obama made a brief return as First Lady in the absence of one to counsel the nation on having the Covid blues. Doctors here confirmed that they saw an increase in depression. It is depressing sitting at home looking out the window wishing you were anyplace else, doing something.

Relationships changed, or ended. Zooming became a verb. Remote work became a real thing. I, for one, got used to it. I fancy myself living the writer’s life. That’s been a good thing, sort of a dream come true, really. That, and voters told Trump to take his act back to Mar-a-Lago. They chose Biden and cooperation over Trump and violent treason.

Voters liked the infrastructure bill. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell last week shook hands with President Biden over a new bridge to connect Ohio and Kentucky while the House Republicans fought yesterday’s battles. Sen. Joni Ernst was one of a dozen Republicans to vote for protecting gay and interracial marriages, which drew a rebuke from the Pocahontas County Republican Central Committee. There are signs of moderation that made Ernst feel comfortable enough to be sensible.

At one point oil prices went into negative territory when interest rates were at zero. We worried that we couldn’t get paper to print because of huge supply chain kinks. You couldn’t even think about looking at a new car on a lot because they weren’t there. They still aren’t. Newsprint prices are stabilizing. Oil shot up as the economy came back, along with grocery prices. Then interest rates ratcheted up to combat inflation. Meatpackers raised wages significantly over the past five years — from about $16 per hour to start, to nearly $22 per hour starting wage now, plus with better health care benefits.

Restaurants have come back, but dining in is down nearly 20% from pre-pandemic times. Take-out is way up. Inflation is subsiding. Congress did big bipartisan things, like reshoring computer chip making to the USA from Asia. We are beginning to address climate change. Our saber rattling with China over trade is subsiding, and China has trouble all its own coping with a wave of Covid. The insurrection was driven at least in part by the frustration of the pandemic cast on a motif of fear. Many of the participants are thinking about it from jail. Voters called again for moderation in the November midterm election. Democracy holds on as aimless rebels are shunted aside. Trump’s popularity is waning. Costs are coming down as job creation holds up pretty well.

The sun came out clear last Friday. It seemed like we had been living in a cold gray cloud for so long that 24 degrees felt like May. The brave men and women who defended democracy two years ago embraced President Biden as he gave them medals for their valor. Zealotry is not having its finest hour. Supply is finding demand. Iowa has Covid under control as deaths and hospitalizations decline. You would like to think that the fever has broken.

Born to chop and saw, he dissed it; now he aims to be king of lumberjacks in 'original extreme sport' sort of like golf

Jason Lentz (Photo by Natalie Ivis, The New York Times)

How can a man can fall into a life he never wanted? Jason Lentz didn't want the life of a competitive lumberjack when his family tried to thrust upon him: "He certainly fought against it," reports Reid Forgrave of The New York Times. "His father and his grandfather and his great-grandfather, who had worked the Great Depression-era logging camps in Oregon, were all elite lumberjacks. And Jason didn’t want to do it. In fact, he hated it."

Growing up in Webster County, West Virginia, Lentz saw how lumberjacking hurt his family: "Jason hated that lumberjacking took his dad [Mel] away for as many as 11 months a year, barnstorming the country and world in search of competitions and their measly winner’s checks. He could make $500 or $1,000 at a show, but the winnings didn’t amount to much when set beside the cost of equipment and travel," Forgrave writes. "For a time, Mel worked a lumberjack show at Sea World Ohio, while Jason, his mother and his little sister scraped by in West Virginia. Jason blamed the sport for his growing up poor — poor even by the standards of one of the poorest counties in one of America’s poorest states." Jason told the Times, "I didn't want to be anything like him."

Right out of high school Jason dissed lumberjacking and focused on basketball, Forgrave reports, but when his post-college overseas basketball opportunity vanished, Jason was poor and lost. "Then his father put him in touch with a friend who had a job for Jason doing lumberjack exhibitions at Chimelong Paradise, an amusement park in Guangzhou, China," Forgrave notes. "Reluctant to follow in his dad’s steps but out of options, he flew to the other side of the world. There, out from under Mel’s shadow, Jason Lentz was free to find his own path. It led him right back to his father."

In China and then around the world, Lentz found his place as powerhouse lumberjack, "That brute strength is the advantage that Lentz, who is roughly the size of an NFL tight end, holds over virtually all his opponents in the Stihl Timbersports Series, which are the biggest-money events in the sport," Forgave reports. Stihl series calls lumberjacking "the original extreme sport." And for those who may think it's all about brute strength, Forgrave explains: "Lentz and other lumberjacks often compare their sport to golf: Power comes from hip torque instead of arm strength; precision comes from producing a repeatable swing. As in golf, the difference between really good and a champion often depends on mental strength: being able to forget one bad swing and move on to the next."

Mel and Jason Lentz (Natalie Ivis, NYT)

Forgrave recounts Jason's progress and regress: "Lentz did not do well at the 2022 Stihl Timbersports U.S. Championships in Little Rock, Ark. In 2021, he established himself as the best lumberjack in the world, winning pretty much every big event, including his first Stihl world title (which his dad won six times). He has a plan for 2023. He plans to head to Australia in January, where he will spend a few months training. . . . . The Australia portion of his 2023 season will end in April at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, known as the 'Wimbledon of Woodchop.' He thinks he has a chance to win the single-buck title in Australia. Only one American has ever won that title in Sydney: Mel Lentz."

Jason Lentz, 37, told Forgrave, “It’s the maturity thing. It’s like golf. My next 10 years, 13 years — those are going to be my prime.”

Electric school buses going rural; Missouri plans fall rollout

Row of electric buses (Photo by Bill O'Leary, The Washington Post)

Electric vehicles don't have a high profile in rural Missouri, but that's about to change. "Come this fall, dozens of electric school buses will hit Missouri roads thanks to a new federal rebate program that enables school districts to switch their diesel-powered bus fleets to electric," reports Claire Carlson of The Daily Yonder. "A Missouri school district superintendent says the electric buses will lower fuel costs, allowing them to invest the savings elsewhere."

Heath Oates, superintendent of western Missouri’s El Dorado Springs R-II School District, told Carlson, “Our district’s diesel-fuel costs are tremendous. My initial estimates show we’re going to save around $200,000 a year, which is the cost of four beginning teachers with benefits.” Carlson notes, "Rural school districts’ longer bus routes and lower population density mean they can have higher transportation costs than urban districts. Reducing fossil-fuel dependency will lower those costs, say electric-bus advocates."

Since rural areas lack electric-vehicle infrastructure, knowledge and planning will proceed the bus launch. "According to First Student, the largest school-bus company in North America, electric buses will need to be equipped with batteries that hold enough power to transport students morning and afternoon through remote areas," Carlson reports. "Bus providers will need to know the mileage, local topography, and average speeds of the school districts’ bus routes to determine battery size."

The Environmental Protection Agency is managing the switch to electric buses through its Clean School Bus program, and school districts were awarded funds in the program’s 2022 funding cycle. Carlson writes, "There are four more Clean School Bus award cycles planned over the next four years. While rural communities were a priority in this round of funding, more districts will be included in the next rounds, according to the EPA."

Quick hits: Remembering the Kings, rural research on a road trip, Appalachian recipes, marvelous maple syrup . . .

The Embrace is more than a memorial. (Photo by Murray Whyte, The Boston Globe)

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King with The Embrace. More that a memorial, the sculpture celebrates the unsung.

The creepiest day on the calendar has returned: Friday the 13th.

January marks the beginning of tax season. Helpful changes to get you started are here. Words of wisdom taken from the "unofficial" IRS website to get you started: A tax loophole is "something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it is tax reform.''  –Russell Long, U.S. senator, Louisiana

A road trip through rural New England is always welcome. Especially when it involves an experiment and several homemade donuts.

Amaryllis, paper whites, or a Christmas cactus, winter slogs on but these gems are still spreading cheer. Notes on how to take care of your holiday plants.

Warm and romantic. In the 1930s, car trips took you to some unexpected places.

The vivid colors and flavors of Appalachian cooking are celebrated in Ronni Lundy’s book Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes.

Maple syrup is more complex than sugar and punches above its weight as go-to ingredient.

Good news: The phrase "it is what it is" has been banished along with nine other skunk phrases that aren't invited to the garden party. Thank you, Michigan.

Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! When a helicopter shows up in rural town, spectators gather. Kind of like when there's a bear headed into the general store.

Many U.S. museums fail to return Native American remains and cultural items, ignoring law; some are catching up

Pottery from Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon’s largest structure, sits behind glass in lab at the American Museum of Natural History. (Photo, American Museum of Natural History Library)

Western expansion of the U.S. in the 1800s muscled Native Americans off their land. At the same time, "Museums and the federal government encouraged the looting of Indigenous remains, funerary objects and cultural items," Logan Jaffe, Mary Hudetz and Ash Ngu of ProPublica report with Graham Lee Brewer of NBC. "Many of the institutions continue to hold these today — and in some cases resist their return despite the 1990 passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. . . A small group of institutions and government bodies has played an outsized role in the law’s failure."

The reporters write, "Ten institutions hold about half of the Native American remains that have not been returned to tribes. These include old and prestigious museums with collections taken from ancestral lands not long after the U.S. government forcibly removed Native Americans from them, as well as state-run institutions that amassed their collections from earthen burial mounds that had protected the dead for hundreds of years. Two are arms of the U.S. government: the Interior Department, which administers the law, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest federally owned utility."

D. Rae Gould, executive director of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Brown University and a member of the Hassanamisco Band of Nipmucs of Massachusetts, told ProPublica, "'one of the faults with the law' is that institutions, and not tribes, have the final say on whether their collections are considered culturally related to the tribes seeking repatriation." In sum, Native Americans do not get to decide what they want returned.

ProPublica notes, "As of last month, about 200 institutions — including the University of Kentucky’s William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology and the nonprofit Center for American Archeology in Kampsville, Illinois — had repatriated none of the remains of more than 14,000 Native Americans in their collections. . . . . A University of Kentucky spokesperson told ProPublica the William S. Webb Museum “is committed to repatriating all Native American ancestral remains and funerary belongings, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony to Native nations.”

Some entities due not feel a duty to act. Jason L. King, the executive director of the Center for American Archeology, said that the institution has complied with the law, said: “To date, no tribes have requested repatriation of remains or objects from the CAA.” Others entities are attempting to address their lack of action. In a statement, a [Webb] museum spokesperson said that “we recognize the pain caused by past practices . . . The University of Kentucky recently told ProPublica that it plans to spend more than $800,000 between 2023 and 2025 on repatriation, including the hiring of three more museum staff positions."

New abortion clinics change blue-state towns near borders

A sign installation for Choices, a new abortion clinic in Carbondale,
Ill. (Photo by Erin Schaff, The New York Times via Redux Pictures)

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, small blue-state border towns are experiencing an increase in abortion clinic openings and an influx of visitors as women seek abortion services. Carbondale, Illinois, is one blue-state town where a Tennessee-based provider opened a clinic named Choices, reports Shia Kapos of Politico. "Choices is seeing a steady stream of abortion patients from Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas since it set up space in a shuttered dermatology office last fall, its only location outside Memphis."

Choices CEO Jennifer Pepper told Kapos, “For towns like Carbondale in states that continue to have access to abortion and border states that don’t, how can you not be impacted by having two, three or four clinics pop up? There are thousands of people traveling through your town.”

Carbondale, Ill. (Google map)

Kapos writes: "For Carbondale, a college town of 22,000 people, geography had a lot to do with Choices’ new site: Illinois is bordered by five states that all have abortion laws more restrictive than its own, turning the Democratic-controlled state into a destination for those seeking the procedure since Roe v. Wade fell in June. . . . And with the influx of patients has come more customers at local restaurants, booked up hotels and other early measures of economic change, particularly in the Midwest and the West."

Alison Dreith of the Midwest Access Coalition, a fund that helps people access abortion care across the region, told Kapos, “The current hotel infrastructure can’t handle the needs of the university community, let alone the new and emerging abortion community. It’s something we know we have to face down the line.”

Conservatives have voiced worry over the phenomenon. Jeanne Ives, a former state representative who sits on the Illinois Right to Life board, told Kapos, "They come in for a quick in-and-out procedure, and a lot of abortions are not easy decisions. It basically makes it a drive-thru service decision and I think that’s shameful."

Meanwhile, border towns will continue to experience a higher demand for services. Mayor Rachel Medina of Cortez, Colo told Kapos, “What’s tough about border towns is that they’re rural and don’t have a lot of funding. Small towns take the brunt of it and can barely meet the needs of their own residents."

Bison benefit prairie more than cattle, help the ecosystem (plants, birds, etc.) and make it more resilient to drought

Three bison on the American Prairie reserve in Montana (Photo by Louise Johns, The New York Times)

Iconic horns, massive bodies, and shaggy fur: the American bison is a commanding presence that some think the West needs to regrow and protect its once magnificent ecosystem. "Since 2001, American Prairie — formerly known as American Prairie Reserve — has been working to create a fully functioning wild prairie, complete with herds of bison thundering across the landscape and playing their historical ecological role," reports Jim Robbins of The New York Times. "Experts originally thought it would take a decade or so to restore the bison-driven grassland ecosystem that would, in turn, replenish native species, including numerous grassland birds, river otters, prairie dogs, grizzly bears and wolves — all of which have been eliminated or diminished, largely by farming and livestock grazing." Robbins notes that experts have had to expand their timetable to decades.

The Great Plains was once home to "between 30 million and 60 million bison," Robbins writes. "They were a 'keystone' species in a complex ecological web, creating a cascade of environmental conditions that benefited countless other species. . . . A long-term comparative study of bison and cattle on tallgrass prairie in Kansas showed that over about 30 years on land grazed by bison, the richness of native plant species doubled compared with places where cattle grazed, and the presence of bison made the prairie ecosystem more resilient to drought."

Wes Olson, a bison expert who worked to return the animal to Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan for Parks Canada, told Robbins, “In virtually every ecosystem currently grazed by bison, all of the grassland songbirds are lining their nest with bison hair. It insulates and increases chick survival and egg survival by up to 60 percent.”

Bison advocates have had to reset their completion schedule multiple time and "a full-blown prairie ecosystem is still decades away, and it won’t be cheap: Dr. Freese, who is writing a book about the return of wildlife to the plains, estimates it is likely to cost several hundred million dollars," Robbins reports. But the ultimate goal is attainable: "Someday, the bison on reservations, American Prairie and nearby wildlife refuges in the United States and Canada, may become one vast herd, roaming across about 3 million acres."

News-media roundup: Oregon paper closes; broadcasters worry about police radio encryption; others should too

UPDATE, Jan. 31: Newspapers from other Oregon towns are now in "an old-fashioned newspaper war" to serve Jackson County, reports Brier Dudley of The Seattle Times.

Jackson County is on the California border. (Google map)

The Medford Mail-Tribune, which went digital-only last fall, announced Wednesday that Friday would be its last day of publication. "The Mail Tribune’s closure will result in a dramatic loss of news coverage for the biggest population center in southern Oregon. Jackson County, where Medford is the county seat, is home to nearly 224,000," The Oregonian reports. "Travis Moore, publisher of the Daily Courier, a newspaper serving Grants Pass and the surrounding area, said Wednesday that his company would move to hire some Mail Tribune journalists and expand its coverage in nearby Jackson County."

UPDATE, Jan. 17: Medford's KDRV updates its audience on the Courier's plans.

"Police departments across the country are encrypting their radio scanner communications with an increased and frightening urgency," the Radio Television Digital News Association tells its members. "Though encryption is not a new issue, it is rapidly accelerating . . . These encryption policies look different from department to department — with some opting for a delayed release of information, others decrypting for media personnel, and many choosing to encrypt communications entirely. Was there a moment where your lack of access to radio communications led to a loss of real-time information sharing? Has your newsroom been impacted by scanner encryption? Why is it important to keep this resource available to the public, including journalists? Help us build our case by sharing your newsroom’s experience with encryption. Read more about police encryption and RTDNA's approach here."

PR for journalism: “Even if the media industry takes urgent steps like diversifying newsrooms and empowering local media, the populist media bashing won’t go away. Ignoring it is not a sustainable way forward,” Cambridge University Ph.D. student Ayala Panievsky writes for Nieman Lab. “Journalists must start campainging for journalism. . . . promote and explain journalism as a flawed-yet-necessary social institution. As media-savvy journalists should know, vague arguments about 'saving democracy' or 'checks and balances' won’t do; they’re too abstract and carry little sentimental resonance for many.”

Seek solutions: "It is not enough for stories to expose problems to societal problems; they should explore how people tackle those problems," Lauren Kessler writes for Nieman Storyboard, promoting the concept of solutions journalism, as defined by the Solutions Journalism Project: “rigorous, evidence-based reporting on the responses to social problems,” the mission of which is “to transform journalism so that all people have access to news that helps them envision and build a more equitable world.” Or, as the late Molly Ivins said, “Listen to the people who are talking about how to fix what’s wrong, not the ones who just work people into a snit over the problems. Listen to the people who have ideas about how to fix things, not the ones who just blame others.”

Constructive Institute table, adapted by The Rural Blog, shows forms of journalism and their differences.

Rural Covid-19 infections and death rates fell below those of urban areas during the last week of 2022

Daily Yonder map

Since early in the pandemic, rural America has had more deaths and coronavirus cases than urban areas. Not in the last full CDC reporting week of 2022, when "Covid-19 infection and death rates . . . were lower in rural counties than in metropolitan areas," reports Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder. "The weekly rural death rate was about 12% lower than the metropolitan death rate. . . . That's only the eighth week since August 2020 that the rural death rate has been lower than the metro rate. In 2022, it was lower on just three occasions."

Urban and rural infection rates have been more varied. "The early days of the pandemic saw urban areas with very high rates compared to rural areas because the epicenter of infections was the New York metropolitan area," Melotte writes. "Since those early months, new outbreaks generally led initially to higher metropolitan rates which later rolled into higher rates for rural areas."

Melotte compares the numbers: There were 43,499 new rural cases, "27% fewer infections than the previous week. The rural infection rate was 94.4 infections per 100,000 residents, 16,184 fewer infections than the previous week. . . . There were 342,545 new cases last week in metropolitan counties, where the infection rate was 121.4 cases per 100,000 residents. Urban infections dropped by 22%, 97,283 fewer infections than the previous week." A comparison of rural and urban deaths shows a greater percentage drop in rural deaths. "During the week of August 8, 2020, the rural death rate exceeded the urban rate for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic and it remained that way for all but a handful of weeks."

Some states try to save railroad regulation authority, seeking to prevent blocked crossings that endanger citizens

Photo by Bruce Bisping, Star Tribune via Getty Images

A roadway blocked by a train can mean an unpredictable wait: five minutes, 30, or an hour; and however common, often the extended wait time is illegal under state law. "Thirty-seven states and the district have adopted statutes or regulations limiting how long trains may block grade crossings," reports Daniel C. Vock of Route Fifty. "But lower courts have determined that federal laws pre-empt the state rules, even though the federal laws don’t specifically address blocked crossings."

In response to a federal court ruling in Ohio, "Eighteen states are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case that could affect their ability to regulate railroad crossings and the amount of time freight trains can block local roads," Vock writes. "The attorneys general argued that the problem of trains blocking roadways has become worse, as railroads use longer and longer trains to increase efficiency. 'Blocked grade crossings have serious—sometimes life-threatening—consequences for everyday Americans,' they wrote."

The AGs' friend-of-the-court brief argues, "Too many emergency vehicles have arrived too late to save lives; too many EMTs have risked life and limb climbing over trains to reach those in need; too many fires have burned while emergency crews detoured miles out of the way; and too many communities have been bisected for days waiting for train crews to unblock intersections."

The attorneys general want the Supreme Court to reaffirm state authority: “For over a century, state and local authorities have regulated safety at railroad crossings through anti-blocking laws that limit how long stopped trains may block crossings. Those laws not only safeguard public thoroughfares but also ensure passage by emergency personnel to citizens in need."

Supporting Ohio’s appeal are Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Wyo. wildlife conservation gets a boost from tourism-industry donations; hunters no longer solely responsible

Wyoming has an appealing mix of land, sky, wildlife, and geography. (Photo by Nomadsunveiled)

What do you know about Wyoming? Wide open spaces where striking wildlife can be spotted? All things photo-worthy? Wyoming has begun using tourism funding to support those spaces and creatures, and that is "changing the face of wildlife conservation funding," reports Kelsey Wellington of Writers on the Range. "It’s based on the state’s startling mountains, rivers filled with fish and forests where bears and wolves roam — everything that makes Wyoming unrivaled."

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is largely funded by hunters and anglers, "but as we all know, hunters and anglers aren’t the only people fascinated by wildlife," Wellington notes. "The number one reason people travel to Wyoming is to view wild animals, and wildlife watching alone accounts for almost half a billion dollars in state revenue. It also employs over 10,000 people. . . . Yet the tourism industry contributes very little when it comes to funding wildlife conservation."

Now some in the industry are voluntarily donating to the cause, thanks to Taylor Phillips, owner of EcoTour Adventures, a Wyoming wildlife tour company who "felt this gap was unfair and wanted to do something about it. Since founding his business in 2008, Phillips donated over $115,000 to nonprofits that work to conserve the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem," Wellington reports. "Phillips expected other wildlife-tourism businesses to catch on, but very few did. Phillips partnered with Chris McBarnes, president of The WYldlife Fund, a partner foundation to the state game and fish department," which helps fund wildlife projects. They created Wildlife Tourism for Tomorrow, which "funds conservation by targeting businesses and people that depend on wildlife to make their living. These are the companies that run wildlife tours, and the hotels, restaurants and shops that cater to wildlife watchers."

Wellington writes, "Since October of 2021, Wildlife Tourism for Tomorrow has raised over $200,000 for Wyoming’s wildlife from over 70 businesses and dozens of individuals, and has given $84,900 in gifts for wildlife conservation projects. Trout Unlimited received a gift of $20,000 in 2020 for a project to keep spawning cutthroat trout from getting trapped in an irrigation system." Trout Unlimited’s Leslie Steen told Wellington, “I’ve seen wildlife tour trips in the area and it is really neat to think that those same businesses are now giving back to native fish.”