Friday, April 28, 2006

'End the war in Iraq' campaign message resonating in rural Virginia

"From a cocktail party of liberal contributors in Baltimore to the ball-cap-wearing crowd in a conservative town in southwest Virginia, wherever Democratic loyalists gather, there are five words sure to prompt applause for a Senate candidate: End the war in Iraq," reports The Washington Post's Robert Barnes, in a look at how the issue is affecting U.S. Senate races in Maryland and Virginia.

"You heard it in Gate City," Democratic candidate James Webb, whose roots are nearby, reminded Barnes, who accompanied him on a cross-state campaign tour that started there Tuesday. Webb, Navy secretary in the Regan administration and a decorated Vietnam veteran, "explained -- very carefully -- his opposition to the war to a group of supporters and family members, pointing to a 2002 op-ed article he wrote for the Post advising against the invasion," Barnes reports.

"My objection to the war is not aimed at my country but at the administration that has chosen to wage this war, an administration that has muddied the truth, made mistake after mistake and refused to accept responsibility," said Webb, wears combat boots to show support for troops -- including his son, who followed him into the Marines and "is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq this summer," Barnes writes.

Webb won applause in Gate City, Norfolk, Richmond and Arlington by saying, "We have a lot of cleaning up to do: Number One is to end the war in Iraq." However, "The sound bites of some candidates get less crisp when they are discussing how to end the war and when," Barnes writes. "Webb said he is reluctant to endorse a specific exit strategy 'from the third row of the spectator seats.' He said the first step should be stating that the United States has no long-term interest in staying in Iraq and working to get the countries in the region to take a more active role. He believes U.S. troops could be out in a couple of years, but he remains cautious. 'We got in precipitously,' he said. 'We have to get out carefully.'"

Rural communities struggle to use health technology sans broadband

"When it comes to using health information technology, rural communities face many difficulties, including common ones such as figuring out how to pay for the systems and how to set up patient information exchanges. But some rural areas have another tough problem. They can’t get affordable high-speed communications services," writes Nancy Ferris of Government Health IT, a guide to public policy and its applications in health information technology.

When using only dial-up connections, doctors, hospital workers and clinicians spend minutes to send files containing reports or photographs that broadband can transmit in seconds. While medical records are not always large files, most still take up considerable time. Many rural health care providers cannot even consider sending radiological images and other graphic files over the Internet, writes Ferris

A 2005 Institute of Medicine report noted the lack of broadband: “This aspect of the digital divide is one of the greatest challenges for rural telehealth, as well as other rural commerce." Rural health care providers can get connection help from the federal government’s Universal Service Fund, which gave out $44 million last year. One area where rural health is thriving is in telemedicine, with states such as Alaska, Maine and Nebraska using new technology to provide health services to people who might otherwise go without, writes Ferris. (Read more)

Wisconsin bill to give tax credits to broadband providers in rural areas

Wisconsin legislators have passed a bill that will give tax credits to companies providing broadband Internet service in rural areas.

The bill creates a pool of tax credits for Internet equipment used to provide broadband "in areas of the state that are not served" or only have one provider. About $7.5 million in tax credits are available, but providers must make about $150 million in equipment investments to fully collect the franchise and corporate income-tax credits, writes Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council.

Dial-up Internet access is used in many rural areas, "and it's the equivalent of a two-lane road rather than an 'information superhighway,'" notes Still. In an age when businesses rely on the Internet, companies without broadband often operate at a disadvantage. An Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development study shows that broadband penetration in the U.S. was less than 17 percent of businesses and households in 2005, and Wisconsin's penetration is about 15 percent. (Read more)

Small-town museum in Va. exploring benefits of wireless technology

"One of the oldest and smallest state parks in the country, Berkeley Springs State Park is now the first to be a wireless hot spot throughout the entire park," reports The Morgan Messenger, a weekly newspaper in Berkeley Springs, W.Va.

The Museum of the Berkeley Springs, in collaboration with the Washington Heritage Trail, got a grant that will help make the museum a free wireless hot spot. The wi-fi connection will be a benefit added to its virtual museum plan, which includes computer access inside the museum and a museum Web site

Jeanne Mozier, who will manage the wi-fi setup, told the newspaper, "You can send email from George Washington's Bathtub, and surf the Web from the gazebo." (Read more)

Allowing religion in public schools may invite some unexpected faiths

As states debate and pass laws on Bible-based instruction and the proper place for "intelligent design" in the classroom, a school board's action in Shallotte, N.C., shows that opening doors to religion in our pluralistic society can let in visitors who may not have been expected.

"Brunswick County school board members have received letters from religious groups interested in handing out literature to high school students as well as protests from parents and other county residents since the board adopted a first reading of a materials distribution policy," reports Sarah Shew Wilson of the Brunswick Beacon.

The school board recently decided that "All religious faiths shall be allowed to provide books and literature, with the exception of works which defame other religious faiths or a person's race or ethnic origin," to be distributed to local students. School employees are prohibited from commenting on the literature, or to encourage students to take it, Wilson reports. The board chairman so far has received letters from the local Unitarian Universalist church and a Buddhist who both want to distribute literature about their faiths. The principal has been contacted by Jehovah's Witnesses concerning literature.

Rev. David Stratton of Brunswick Islands Baptist Church opposed the measure. "I believe the Bible is God's written word, and I would certainly support any and all efforts to put the Scriptures in the hands of people who need them, especially young people. I am very uncomfortable with a policy that would allow, beyond parental control, the distribution of materials of non-Christian groups and cults."

Sue Graffius, religious education director for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, has two children in Brunswick County Schools and wants to share her faith with other students. "It's mostly just pamphlets about our church," Graffius said this week. "About the philosophy and what we believe." As to whether the policy is appropriate, she added, "I don't think that high schools are the place for this, but I welcome an opportunity to introduce my faith to others." (Read more)

Charlotte Observer illuminates shadowy lives of illegal immigrants

An ongoing Charlotte Observer series that started in February is revealing startling insights about illegal immigrants' presence in the U.S. and is shining new light on legal problems. This newspaper's investigative approach can serve as an example for all journalists, even those at small newspapers in rural areas where minority immigrant populations have been growing fast.

The most recent installment of the Observer's "Hiding in plain sight: Illegal immigration in the Carolinas" exposes a problem that may exist in many areas. "Federal immigration agents say they arrest a document counterfeiter every few weeks in the Charlotte area. Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Julie Myers called the buying and selling of counterfeit documents 'an epidemic' that has turned into a multimillion-dollar criminal industry," writes Franco Ordonez. (Read more)

By pursuing the rise in illegal immigration and not turning a blind eye to the story, Editor Rick Thames wrote in a column, the newspaper was sure it "had uncovered the classic news exclusive -- clear, decisive and complete. There were a few loose threads, however. So we pulled. And pulled. And pulled." (Read more)

In part one, Liz Chandler and Danica Coto wrote about the tragic stories that exist in many communities populated with illegals: "Their rising numbers bring rising tension: An immigrant driving drunk kills a schoolteacher; Hispanic gangs clash in shootouts; and public schools and health departments struggle to accommodate the newest Carolinians."

Coto spent part of her time in a van packed with illegal immigrants hoping to cross the border. As she describes in part one, those attempts can sometimes be deadly: "Nearly 1,000 of them have died in the Arizona desert since 2000 from dehydration, injuries and illness and clashes with authorities, smugglers and thieves. The death toll is dwarfed, though, by the hundreds of thousands who make it." (Read more)

In part two, Chandler and Coto explored the debate about how to handle immigrants. (Read more) Part three took a look at illegal immigrants who return to their homelands for visits (Read more). Part four began the examination of the market in illegal Social Security numbers: "In fact, several million immigrants here illegally have likely hijacked Americans' numbers. But don't count on the Social Security Administration to alert you if you become a victim," wrote Tim Funk, Liz Chandler and Stella M. Hopkins. (Read more)

Columnist offers index to ethanol as starting point for journalists

Readers of The Rural Blog have seen many items about ethanol, which is boosting the economies of many rural areas. Journalists who want to do stories on the subject can take some guidance from Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institiute.

In today's Morning Meeting, Tompkins offers an "index to ethanol" with legislative news, explanations of terms, stock and investment information and details about building "your own ethanol still." With President Bush urging the nation to become less energy-dependent, all of this information proves timely.

A certain percentage of all fuel sold must be ethanol-based in Washington, Minnesota, Montana and Hawaii, and several other states are considering similar requirements. Is your state one of them? Journalists should take up the story. Click here to read Tompkins' column at Poynter Online.

Lone Sago Mine survivor tells victims' families four air masks failed

When the Sago Mine disaster claimed 12 lives in West Virginia, at least four air masks failed to work, according to a letter written by the sole survivor.

"The first thing we did was activate our rescuers, as we had been trained," wrote miner Randal McCloy Jr. in a letter addressing the victims' families. "At least four of the rescuers did not function. There were not enough rescuers to go around." The two-page typed letter provides the first insider account to what happened on Jan. 2 at Sago and the mine's owner, International Coal Group Inc., is refusing to comment, writes Ian Urbina of The New York Times. (Read more)

The Times story provides an excerpt from McCloy's letter and video clips, but the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette provides the full letter. (Read more). Also, to read "Gripping letter tells of Sago miners' final acts" by Dan Majors of the Post-Gazette, click here. To read "McCloy: Sago miners hit gas pocket 3 weeks before blast" by Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette, click here.

University of Kentucky lecturer chronicled death of a 'Lost Mountain'

Erik Reece is both a University of Kentucky English lecturer and the leading spokesman from academia in favor of the abolition of mountaintop removal mining. The latest story about him is by Sean Rose of The Kentucky Kernel, the university's independent student daily. Rose starts off:

"Erik Reece never wanted to write about coal. Which is a little odd, considering the year the UK English instructor spent visiting Perry County, Ky., weaving through briars and underbrush, ducking between boulders and hiding from miners to chronicle a mountain crumbling because of the coal below its surface."

"An assignment from Harper's Magazine took Reece to Lost Mountain in 2003," continues Rose. "What he saw evolved into a book depicting the destruction radical strip mining wreaks on the environment and the people of the region, as well as the corrupt practices that seem to find footholds in many coal businesses. The book, Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness, was scaled down for the Harper's article that ran last April, and was released in January 2006."

"I think one thing a writer has to do is take responsibility for injustices that they perceive," Reece told Rose. "I did start to feel a responsibility. Obviously, the land can't speak for itself, so you have to speak for the land. And I'm not trying to speak for the people of Appalachia, but I am trying to let them tell their stories through me." (Read more)

Thursday, April 27, 2006

More Iowans dying due to 70 mph speed limit on rural interstates

A 70-mile-per-hour speed limit on rural freeways is causing more people to die on the roads in Iowa, state safety officials say. The Hawkeye State "had 47 traffic deaths on rural interstate highways last year, the most since 1973. More than half of those fatalities occurred after the speed limit was raised" on July 1, 2005, reports William Petroski of The Des Moines Register.

The figures are even more striking when the first half-year with higher speeds is compared with the same period the year before: "In the first six months with faster speeds, 25 people died in rural interstate crashes, compared with 12 people who died on Iowa's interstates from July through December 2004." However, 2004 had the lowest number of traffic fatalities in any year since World War II.

Still, there is no doubt that the higher speed is causing more deaths, Scott Falb, a safety planner for the Iowa Department of Transportation, told Petroski: "Every time we have increased the speed limit, we get an increase in traffic crashes and fatalities. So certainly there is a correlation."

The department has found that traffic fatalities"have increased in all of Iowa's neighboring states after speed limits were raised above 65 mph," Patroski writes. "This includes more traffic fatalities in Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri and South Dakota. At the same time, traffic deaths declined over the same period in neighboring states that didn't raise speed limits, including Illinois and Wisconsin." (Read more) Kentucky legislators debated raising the interstate speed limit to 70 this year, but the bill did not pass.

Indiana focuses on youth in 15-year strategic plan for rural areas

"In cities, people and their homes and businesses bump up against each other. In small towns and in rural areas, ideals and ambitions bump up against each other. Cities typically have a plan. Outside them, it too often can be a chaotic free-for-all, increasingly tense," opines Dale Moss, Southern Indiana columnist for The Courier-Journal.

Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman is initiating a 15-year plan called the "Rural Indiana Strategy for Excellence: A 2020 Vision for the Indiana Countryside." Moss reports, "She asked leaders in rural areas both to ponder the future and to help improve it. About 150 people convened. They have talked and now they listen to the public, in an ongoing series of stops. Helpful laws, really helpful money? Neither ultimately is assured. At the least, ideas are being exchanged and contacts are being made."

The plan singles out young people as the key to progress. "Engage young people. Give them reasons to stay locally or to return to their small hometowns. Don't just talk about them. Talk to them. Encourage people with wealth -- and they exist in rural areas as they do in cities -- to invest more in their communities. Recognize diversity, too -- urge both help for all and involvement by all," writes Moss. (Read more)

The Rural Blog reported April 21 that residents' top concerns are broadband Internet and economic development. Click here for the archive that includes the story. To read a draft of the plan, click here.

Covering political forums well can require investment of time, space

With primary elections in at least 10 states next month, it's the season for political forums. All too often, news coverage of these events fails to fulfill the intent of the forum and the reason for covering them -- to help citizens make an informed decision about who will lead them. Sometimes, it's because there are too many candidates and too little time at the forum. Or perhaps there's not enough time on the news broadcast, or enough space in the newspaper.

The State Journal of Frankfort, Ky., made plenty of space this week for coverage of a forum among candidates for countywide offices in Franklin County, which has 50,000 people, many of them rural. A Page One story by Paul Glasser, with a picture and index, directed readers inside -- where they found individual stories and photos about the debates in each race, and a listing of the candidates who attended and those who did not. The inside coverage took up more than a page.

The newspaper's co-sponsorship of the forum could have had something to with its extensive coverage, but its role could be one to emulate. So could its 20-page tabloid guide to the candidates, published yesterday and titled "Civics 101." In addition to candidates' answers to questions and a sample ballot, the section included seven pages with short profiles of current officeholders, elected and appointed. It appeared to be financed with lots of political ads, but they took up less than half the space in the section.

Editor asks how you'd report a public meeting held partly in Spanish

The latest question to the hotline of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors comes from Elliott Freireich, publisher of the West Valley View in Litchfield Park, Ariz.:

"Our reporter was covering the Tolleson City Council meeting last night. Two zoning cases came up where the business owners appeared to not speak English. The entire council and city manager are fluent in Spanish so those hearings took place in Spanish. (Our reporter doesn't speak Spanish.) We can and will get the mayor and city manager to give us the info about these hearings, but the question is, do we report that those took place in Spanish?"

Freireich gives essential background: "Tolleson is predominantly Hispanic. Many residents are Spanish speakers. But there is a large minority of the city who don't speak Spanish and in our coverage area are a large number of people I consider rednecks who think 'those people' don't belong here. Reporting this would probably lead to more of an outcry from them. . . . The city is being responsive to these business owners, but there were other members of the public at the meeting who quite possibly did not understand. Should we mention the fact that part of this meeting took place in Spanish?"

Here's the reply from ISWNE member Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues: "I think the paper should certainly mention that the discussion took place in Spanish, because the reporter does not speak the language and is thus unable to give a truly authoritative account, even if the conversation were taped and translated. It also gives a significant slice of life in Tolleson, and should not be suppressed because of a possible outcry from rednecks. I cringe when I hear that any newspaper is reluctant to print something just because someone might object."

What's your view? Click here to reply to Cross. Click here to reply to the ISWNE list, through Executive Director Chad Stebbins of Missouri Southern State University.

Carroll hopes for local owners to buy back papers from corporations

With newspapers “losing their luster in the financial world, big changes [in ownership structure] are likely,” some good, some bad, former daily editor John Carroll said in a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors meeting in Seattle yesterday, according to a release from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which is funding Carroll's job as visiting lecturer at Harvard University.

Carroll, former editor of the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and Lexington Herald-Leader, said one good change is a growing interest by people in each of those cities buying back their local newspapers from corporate owners. “I’ve spoken with several of them,” he said. “These are serious people – sophisticated people with real money. Perhaps this is a trend.”

Such potential owners, Carroll said, “talk about the importance of the paper to the community. They talk about restoring its pride. … They see the newspaper as a fallen angel, and they say they’d be willing to accept a lower financial return, which would allow the paper to breathe again. . . . Yes, it seems too much to hope for.” He said such hope is needed because newspapers remain relevant and necessary to a vibrant democracy. “Newspapers dig up the news,” he said. “Others repackage it.”

A word for small towns: Here's another part of Carroll's speech we liked, ending with lines that relate to every newspaper of any size: “If, at some point in America’s newspaper-free future, the police decide that the guilt or innocence of murder suspects can be determined perfectly well by beating them until somebody confesses, who will sound the alarm, as the Philadelphia Inquirer did in 1977? . . . Or, if some future president secretly decides to nullify the law and spy on American citizens without warrants, who – if the New York Times falls by the wayside – will sound the warning? More routinely, who will make the checks at City Hall? Who, in cities and towns across America, will go down to the courthouse every day, or to the police station? Who will inspect the tens of thousands of politicians who seek to govern? Who – amid America’s great din of flackery and cant -- will tell us in plain language what’s actually going on?”

Here are some of the tougher lines in the speech, which sum up the challenge of market forces in newsrooms: "How long has it been since an editor was so rash as to cite public service in justifying a budget? You might as well ask to be branded with a scarlet N, for naive. Our corporate superiors regard our beliefs as quaint, wasteful and increasingly tiresome. Even outside the corporation we have lost stature. We might see ourselves as public servants, but does the public see us that way?"

For the full text of Carroll’s speech, go to www.knightfdn.org or www.shorensteincenter.org, the site of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard.

FCC may look at enforcing disclosure rules on video news releases

Joe Flint, TV columnist for The Wall Street Journal, wrote yesterday (as The Rural Blog did) about the Center for Media and Democracy's study showing that many TV stations run video news releases without attribution, allowing the public-relations devices to masquerade as straight news. "If they feel so uneasy about airing VNR footage, then they shouldn't put them on the air," he writes. "And if they are comfortable, then play it straight with the audience and let viewers decide if they are being spun or not."

The Federal Communications Commission requires stations to be told "if anyone was compensated in the production or preparation of a VNR," then to disclose that on the air, Flint reports. "An FCC spokesman couldn't recall any stations being penalized for not following the rules on VNRs. That may change. FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said last year he wants the commission to 'enforce our rules vigorously.' In an interview last week, he expressed concerns about the use of VNRs." Adelstein told Flint, "I don't how this doesn't damage that trust" that broadcasters have with their audience.

The Radio-Television News Directors Association opposes further regulation. It said last year that the public "has a right to expect truthfulness, accuracy and fairness in newscasts," but "determining the content of a newscast including when and how to identify sources … must remain far removed from government involvement or supervision."

Flint spanks stations that violate the rule: "While there is nothing inherently wrong with reporting a story based on a press release, many television stations are using the VNRs alone in lieu of original reporting. What's more alarming, these stations are airing these videos without revealing the origin of the footage to viewers," Flint wrote. "Although television stations and big broadcasters all say they have rules in place that prohibit using VNRs without disclosure, it appears that many outlets only pay lip service to the rules."

"I was astonished how promotional these are," Diane Farsetta, a co-author of the study, told Flint. "The stations leave in all the promotional aspects and didn't even fact-check the claims being made." To read the Center's report, go to www.prwatch.org.

Wyoming, California governors seek funding for joint energy project

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are teaming up to generate new electricity for California in the form of a coal gasification plant in Wyoming.

"We will jointly focus on the (coal gasification pilot) facility that is authorized under the National Energy Act, to see that located in Wyoming," Freudenthal said. "As you recall that act authorizes but does not fund. Hopefully, we will get to funding.” The act mandates that a combined cycle electric generation facility be built at an elevation of 4,000-plus feet, writes Deborah Holder of the Douglas Budget.

Freudenthal explained that the two states will work together to secure federal funding, then hire a private company for the construction, writes Holder. “This agreement is for us to jointly work to see that located in Wyoming," he told the Wyoming weekly. (Read more)

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

New Medicare plan cuts profits for thousands of pharmacies nationwide

The new Medicare prescription-drug benefit is putting a financial strain on thousands of rural pharmacies nationwide, even forcing some to close shop.

The new benefit saves customers money on drug costs, but the loss of profits from prescriptions is responsible for putting pharmacies in a financial bind, reports The Associated Press. In Minnesota, where more than 100 pharmacies have closed in the last decade, University of Minnesota researchers say 37 more are at risk of closing in the coming years. Todd Sorensen, an assistant professor at the university's College of Pharmacy, is working with his colleagues on using an $84,000 federal grant to try to find ways to keep the pharmacies afloat -- perhaps through networks or purchasing groups. (Read more)

To combat this national threat to rural America, pharmacists in Minnesota are finding innovative options, reports Anne Polta of the West Central Tribune. Some pharmacists are choosing to lease space in medical centers, and others are using a telepharmacy system to spread their sales to neighboring communities. A regional initiative is currently in place to find more options for dealing with the pharmacy shortage. (Read more)

Local entrepreneurs quickly expanding specialized food businesses

Jack Schultz writes in his Boomtown USA blog, "One of the major trends that I’m observing as I travel around the country is the number of entrepreneurial companies that are being started up in the food business. Many of these companies are small, but are in niches that could have huge potential."

Some trends noticed by Schultz, who travels the country helping small towns modernize their economies, include food incubators, which "allow small, local entrepreneurs to have the advantages of big companies in producing their product;" a boom in organic food, which "is starting to spread from the coasts into the heartland," combined with another trend, "local and sustainable production;" bison, "the new health food for carnivores," ethnic foods to meet the needs of growing markets, such as goat meat for Muslims; and production of specialized, niche products, "whether it is lavender in Sequim, Wash., pistachios in Wilcox, Ariz., blueberries in Urbana, Ohio, or olive oil in Rutherford, Calif."

On the final point, Schultz writes, "I’m seeing America’s farmers finding unique products to grow and market. There is a much bigger future in these specialized crops for most farmers, rather than trying to be the low-cost commodity producer. Check out the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center at Iowa State University, which is developing various economic models for these niche producers."

SPJ condemns use of video releases masquerading as straight news

When television news departments use of video news releases without saying where they came from, they are irresponsible and misleading, and are opening themselves to increased regulation, the Society of Professional Journalists warned yesterday.

“As we begin national Ethics in Journalism Week, it’s regrettable that far too many television stations continue to forget that their primary obligations are to the public and to truth,” said David Carlson, SPJ’s national president. “They aren’t doing what they are ethically and professionally obligated to do – check out their sources, confirm the veracity of the report, and disclose where the information came from.”

Press releases in the format of a TV story, produced to advance a company’s products or an agency’s agenda, "came to public attention more than two years ago when the Bush administration produced news reports to promote changes in the Medicare program," SPJ noted. "In many cases, these reports were aired without attributing the source, giving the appearance of a legitimate news story."

A report this month by the Center for Media and Democracy documented TV stations' widespread use of video from corporate news releases without any indication that the images and audio "are lifted wholesale from the sources and aren’t the product of the stations’ own reporting," SPJ said. The 10-month study examined 36 releases and identified 77 stations, reaching more than half the U.S. population, that used them at least once. There were many multiple uses.

In 98 instances, there was no disclosure of the source. "Stations didn’t balance or supplement the messages with independent fact-finding; sometimes they made it look like their own reporting, and more than a third ran VNRs intact," the SPJ release said. But SPJ stopped short of endorsing the center’s proposed solution -- an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, clarification of corporate identification rules and penalties for “all stations that air fake news.”

“It’s never a good idea when government tells journalists what they can and cannot do in the content of their news reports,” said Brown, a Sunday Denver Post columnist and former SPJ national president. “We would oppose any expansion of the FCC rule. Instead, we would call on television to clean up its own act.”

Editors' columns boost connection with readers, ASNE president says

We've long thought highly of David Zeeck, executive editor of The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., and incoming president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and he has some advice that we believe applies to all editors -- not just those at large daily newspapers, from which ASNE draws most of its membership, but at smaller dailies and even weeklies.

“Every editor in America ought to be writing a weekly column telling what the paper is about,” Zeeck, who began doing so six years ago, told Joe Strupp of Editor & Publisher. Zeeck said his column “has gotten phenomenal reaction from the community. It takes me about four hours a week to compile and write, but it is the best four hours I spend.” Click here to read Zeeck's latest column.

On issues facing the newspaper industry, Zeeck said, “We need to turn around the belief that newspapers are going away. Because everything else has gotten so fragmented, newspapers remain the only mass medium left. That franchise on local news is still owned by newspapers.” He cited a statistic that more people read newspapers on Super Bowl Sunday than watched the game on television. (Read more)

Writer bids adieu to columnist who did the same to him, prematurely

"There are few who pass through this earthly experience who have a chance to read their own death notice printed in a newspaper," writes Dayton Daily News columnist Dale Huffman. "In January of 1993, a copy of the Cynthiana Democrat in Kentucky was sent to me. The paper carried a very kindly worded announcement of my death. It was written by a columnist for the newspaper, Anna Mae Florence, who then was 78, and wrote one of those wonderful homespun gossipy columns."

Anna Mae Florence died this month, and Huffman took the opportunity to convey his respect for her and relate the tale of how he corrected her. "In the next issue of the Cynthiana Democrat there was a large front- page article with the headline 'I'm alive. Pass it on.' It included a reprint of a column I wrote and an apology from Anna Mae who ended the piece with the words, 'I regret the error and may I add, I enjoyed the nice telephone call from Mr. Huffman and I wish him well in the future.'"

Huffman, who has relatives in the area, concluded, "I did call authorities in Kentucky to verify that indeed she has passed away. Just to be sure." Click here to read his column; click here to read Florence's obit.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Telecom giants battle rural phone companies over Internet-based service

Many rural phone companies are trying to stop cable television providers from selling the cheap Internet-based phone service known as Voice over Internet Protocol, which uses an adapter to connect a regular phone to a high-speed Internet line.

In South Carolina, Time Warner Cable wants to offer its VoIP service, but it needs connections with rural carriers so VoIP users and rural-phone customers can exchange calls. Six rural carriers say they are not required to provide the services. The carriers argue that VoIP would not be a "telecommunications service," and the FCC has hinted that it will label VoIP an "information service." Time Warner says the difference is irrelevant, reports Paul Davidson of USA Today.

"Nebraska regulators backed Southeast Nebraska Telephone in a similar battle against Time Warner and Sprint," writes Davidson. "Standoffs between Time Warner and rural carriers in Texas and New York are before state regulators or the courts."

To settle any rule disputes, Time Warner asked the FCC last month to rule that rural companies must allow for the new competition. The FCC's decision could impact millions of rural residents. In Congress, a House telecom bill would force rural carriers to work with VoIP rivals, notes Davidson. (Read more)

House bill would eliminate local oversight of cable TV, opines writer

"A GOP-led effort on behalf of the telephone lobby (principally Verizon and AT&T), also backed by many Democrats, is about to toss in the dustbin the longstanding policy enabling cities or counties to negotiate a 'franchise' agreement with companies that provide cable TV service," opines Jeff Chester of The Nation, a liberal magazine.

A House committee is considering legislation that would limit communities say in how phone and cable networks operate. "As Verizon and AT&T roll out their broadband Internet and video services, they wish to remove any obstacle to securing lucrative revenues from signing up customers from the wealthiest parts of the country. The phone giants complain that current law requires them to negotiate with each town (as cable TV currently does) to develop a unique deal that benefits the community, and that giving local officials the authority to have an oversight role is slowing down their business plans," writes Chester.

"Local oversight is to be replaced by a 'national franchise' that will permit the most powerful communications giants in the Internet era . . . to operate without regard for local concerns. Under the bill, phone companies could engage in a form of economic redlining, serving only the most affluent parts of town; the current local franchise system prevents such discrimination." (Read more)

Ohio clergy members say churches broke law by supporting candidate

A group of 56 Ohio clergy members contend that two Columbus-area churches overstepped boundaries on ethics and fairness to support a Republican candidate for governor.

Two complaints filed with the Internal Revenue Service claim the churches violated their tax-exempt status by supporting Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the favored candidate of Ohio's religious right. The 56 complainants say the churches improperly held political activities and allowed Republican groups to use their buildings, reports Peter Slevin of The Washington Post.

"The January complaint seeking an IRS investigation -- signed by 31 Christian and Jewish clergy members -- charged that the churches and their affiliates improperly allowed Republican organizations to use their facilities and illegally promoted the candidacy of Blackwell, who won considerable backing from Ohio conservatives while leading a 2004 effort to ban same-sex marriage," writes Slevin. "An April complaint, signed by 56 clergy members, said that Blackwell appeared more than two dozen times at meetings and rallies held by the churches, their leaders or affiliates." (Read more)

Joe Hallett of The Columbus Dispatch is keeping tabs on the churches' activities. He reported last week that one of the pastors targeted by the complaints distributed an e-mail promoting Blackwell, but also that independent experts said the e-mail was worded to avoid getting the church or its pastor in more legal trouble. He quoted Donald Tobin, an associate professor of law at Ohio State University and an expert on tax-exempt organizations, and John W. Whitehead, president and founder of The Rutherford Institute, a national organization providing legal services in defense of religious and civil liberties.

"It’s fine to personally endorse a candidate, but you cannot use your church resources to do it," Whitehead told Hallett. "You can write a letter to your friends." (Read more)

Coal operators say new accident-notice rules too rigid, maybe dangerous

Coal-industry officials say that emergency rules imposed after 14 miners died in West Virginia are too rigid and could put miners in additional danger.

During a hearing Monday in Lakewood, Colo., the officials told a federal Mine Safety and Health Administration panel that requiring notification of an accident within 15 minutes could be impractical or dangerous. They argued that miners would face either rescuing someone or having to call in the accident, reports The Associated Press. The temporary standards went into effect March 9 and public comments are being accepted through May 30.

Additional meetings are planned in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. According to this chart on MSHA's Web site, 32 miners — 26 in coal mines and six in other types of mines — have died so this year, compared to 13 mining fatalities this time last year, notes AP. (Read more)

Farmers worry about new National Animal Identification System

At a recent question-and-answer meeting about the U.S. Department of Agriculture's new National Animal Identification System, farmers in Wythe County, Virginia, learned that the government can make them comply. Such meetings are being held, or will be held, all over the country.

A USDA clause permits the government to mandate the entire system. "However, the government agency is counting on market forces, which already are pushing for age and source verification, to compel farmers to participate," writes Mary Beth Jackson of the weekly Bland County Messenger.

Proponents say the identification system requiring that animals be tagged and all movements be monitored will protect the nation's food supply from disease and bioterrorism. Opponents say the system is redundant and invasive. Also, there is confusion about how to comply with the requirements, reports Jackson. Farmers want to know where to buy tags, how information will be stored and what public access to that information might exist. (Read more)

N.C. lawmaker fights land purchase needed to honor Flight 93 victims

A congressman from rural western North Carolina is blocking a rural memorial to United Airlines Flight 93 because he dislikes federal purchases of rural property.

Republican Rep. Charles H. Taylor opposes a $10 million request to buy land in Shanksville, Pa., for a permanent memorial honoring the 40 people who died there in the crash of Flight 93. With a film about the crash, United 93, set to hit movie screens tonight, victims' families are ready to fight for the money, reports Jonathan Weisman of The Washington Post. "We need to build a memorial for these people," said Rep. William Shuster, a Republican whose district includes Shanksville. "These 40 people were the first counterattack of the war on terror, and they were victorious."

Taylor counters that the federal government is already the nation's largest landowner, that no additional tax dollars should be spent on memorials, and that the taxpayers may be left holding the bag if the families don't raise half the cost of the memorial, as they have said they would. Universal Pictures has promised to donate 10 percent of the gross receipts from United 93 to the memorial.

"House Republicans worry that Taylor is not doing himself any favors, standing against the memorial fund in the midst of a tough re-election campaign against former Washington Redskins quarterback Heath Shuler," the Post reports. (Read more)

Monday, April 24, 2006

Rising gasoline prices force rural residents, farmers to rethink travel

Rising gasoline prices are forcing people in rural America to cut back on consumption and travel, though long commutes are a part of many daily lives.

Jim Magagna, the executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said managing crops and livestock requires large amounts of fuel, which makes it especially difficult for farmers to cut back. Still, ranchers are reducing their dependency on gas by using all-terrain vehicles instead of pickup trucks to move around their land, reports The Associated Press.

The effect produced by gas prices is far-reaching, said Carol Clements, chair of the National Fuels Fund Network, a group that helps poor families pay their electricity or home-heating bills, notes AP. "All of these energy costs are having a compounding effect," she said. "We're seeing more people bumped from middle and working class to low-income and poverty situations." (Read more)

Rural schools, communities partner to overcome economic struggles

A new trend is occurring in rural America and it is not limited to one state or one socioeconomic class. Rural schools and communities are partnering to offer new programs and helps students achieve success.

The latest issue of Rural Policy Matters, a monthly newsletter of the Rural School and Community Trust explores, describes three different areas where such partnerships are working: Rappahannock County, Virginia is a moderate-income area feeling the squeeze of urban sprawl; Wakefield, Neb., is a low- to moderate-income area where farming is rapidly changing; East Feliciana Parish, La., is a low-income area with few economic opportunities.

Several ideas bind these school-community partnerships together including collaboration, communication, and flexibility. Success in one area seems to have a rollover effect, and as confidence grows, "the school is seen as a great investment by local residents and by outside funders," writes the Rural School and Community Trust. (Read more)

Critical access status gives rural hospitals new life, but cuts proposed

A rural health program gives hospitals critical access status, which has saved about one in five of the 6,000 hospitals nationwide. Now proposed federal funding cuts could threaten the successful program.

The critical access hospitals are now facing President Bush's proposal to cut $133 million in rural health funds. Congress created the program in 1997 to give hospitals the ability to receive Medicare reimbursements at about full cost, unlike other hospitals that accept whatever Medicare decides to pay, reports Allison Barker of The Associated Press.

The only states without hospitals in the program include Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut and Maryland. Hospitals in those states either fail to meet eligibility requirements or chose not to participate. To qualify, a hospital must have 25 or fewer acute-care beds, keep patients no more than 96 hours and be located 35 miles from another hospital -- or 15 miles in mountainous areas. (Read more)

Nation's farmers focus on bird-flu prevention, detection, surveillance

If you're planning to write about poultry farmers dealiung with bird flu, and also need to explain threat clearly, a good example to follow would be the story by business reporter Wayne Tompkins in today's Courier-Journal, with some material from The Associated Press.

"Most of America's chickens come from commercial farms that keep birds indoors and are well-protected against the spread of disease. But flocks in people's backyards -- officials are unsure how many -- and free-range flocks could mix with wild birds or their droppings. Officials encourage those producers to bring flocks inside and watch for signs of flu," Tompkins writes.

State, federal and wildlife officials are increasing surveillance of wild waterfowl and domestic poultry in order to prevent any outbreak of bird flu, Tompkins reports for the Louisville newspaper. If bird flu arrives, "quick detection will be key to quickly containing it and eradicating it," Ron DeHaven, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, told the paper.

Commercial producers are developing their own programs of tests and safeguard measures. Small producers are required by the National Poultry Improvement Plan to have their flocks inspected once a year, notes Tompkins. Bleach baths and other "biosecurity" measures will play a crucial role in protecting the nation's multi-billion dollar poultry industry. (Read more)

Kentucky man is lone American to win grass-roots environmental award

Craig Williams of Berea, Ky., is the only American winner of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's most generous monetary honor for grass-roots environmentalists. It comes with $125,000.

"Williams is being recognized for the work he has done to convince the Pentagon to stop plans to incinerate old chemical weapons stockpiled at the Blue Grass Army Depot and around the United States. He has worked to create a nationwide grassroots coalition (the Chemical Weapons Working Group) to lobby for safe disposal solutions," reports Ronica Shannon of the Richmond Register. (Read more)

Williams told The Courier-Journal that a meeting with Defense Department officials in 1984 spurred his push for the safe destruction of chemical weapons around the world. "I remember telling the powers that be that their approach to this thing, of waltzing in here and telling people what they're going to do, that has the potential to impact all of these people in this audience and my family -- without engaging the community in the decision-making process -- is not going to work," he said. (Read more)

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports, "There's no one else quite like Craig Williams, a blustery former New Yorker with a fondness for casual dress and unprintable jokes. As director of the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, he has become an expert on chemical weapons and how things work on Capitol Hill." (Read more) For information about this year's other winners, click here.

Urban-rural divide exists in government spending on AIDS patients

As some of the highest rates of AIDS cases shift from California and the Northeast to the Southern states, some health groups are arguing that a federal spending law needs to keep up with the times.

"By some measures, AIDS patients in California and the Northeast get more money per capita than those in the South, where activists are lobbying for a bigger share. With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, Congress is attempting for the first time since 2000 to amend the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990. It is named for the Indiana teenager who died that year after contracting AIDS from treatments for hemophilia," reports The Associated Press.

Kathie Hiers, head of the non-profit AIDS Alabama, says people suffer based on location. But Phil Curtis of the AIDS Project Los Angeles counters that the urban-rural spending differences are exaggerated. The federal government spends $2 billion each year to give more than 500,000 people health care, drugs and other aid in cases where patients are uninsured or cannot survive with just Medicaid or private insurance, notes AP.

Depending on what Congress decides about redistributing aid, California and New York could lose up to $20 million each and Southern states could net millions more, reports AP. (Read more)

West Virginia's natural gas industry tries to replace aging workforce

West Virginia's oil and gas industry says it needs workers. Like the coal industry, the average age of someone working in the natural gas industry is over 50.

"Many West Virginians may not realize coal is not the only extractive industry thriving in the Mountain State. . . . According to a 2005 study prepared by the Marshall University Center for Business and Economic Research, half of West Virginia's homes are heated by natural gas. West Virginia is the third-largest producer of natural gas east of the Mississippi River, and the industry is poised for steady growth for at least the next 20 years," writes Juliet A. Terry of the weekly State Journal in Charleston.

Natural gas prices are more than four times as high than in 1988, reports Terry. The biggest challenge facing the state's burgeoning industry is repopulating the workforce, said Nicholas DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Gas Association. "Because of the boom in the energy industry, this can be a career job rather than cyclical like it was 20 to 30 years ago," he said. (Read more)

Rural S.C. county making up textile loss with suburban sprawl?

In Lancaster County, South Carolina's northern panhandle, farms and woods are being replaced by urban development creeping in from nearby Charlotte, but that could also be saving an area damaged by the departure of the textile industry, formerly its economic backbone.

"Once home to the world's largest cotton mill, the Springs Lancaster plant, the county lost nearly 2,500 manufacturing jobs in six years from 1997 to 2005," writes Henry Eichel of the Charlotte Observer. Now both proponents of development and its critics are coming to terms with the idea that development could save the county's economic future.

County Administrator Chap Hurst wants to attract high-end development. "If you look at economic development across the nation, there's not a lot of manufacturing moving around," Hurst told Eichel. "This isn't 10 or 20 years ago; the day of manufacturing is pretty much gone. But there are corporate headquarters moving around. . . . Money attracts money. When you make this environment safe and as pretty as you can make it, you're going to bring in those high-priced investments." (Read more)

Friday, April 21, 2006

Bird flu outbreak could create crisis for nation's poultry industry

A possible bird flu outbreak could greatly impact the nation's poultry industry and affect the countries that rely on chicken, turkey and other poultry from the U.S.

In Virginia, boiler chickens and eggs rack up annual sales of $450 million per year, or 21 percent of the state's agricultural commodity production, according to the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. There is a large poultry presence with 880 farms that raise chickens or produce eggs, and four companies operating processing plants, reports Ray Reed of The Roanoke Times.

About 16 percent of the boiler chickens raised in Virginia are then sent to Russia, Mexico, South Korea, Hong Kong and the Caribbean, writes Reed. (Read more)

An in-depth story on Agriculture Online explains the process of how bird flu can infect chickens and eggs: "Highly pathogenic viruses, such as the H5N1 strain [that contains bird flu], spread to virtually all parts of an infected bird, including meat. . . . Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus can be found inside and on the surface of eggs laid by infected birds." (Read more)

Earth Day reflections: Loss of forest threatens rural areas, writers say

"Our forests are the heart of our environmental support system. And yet, in the 36 years that have passed since the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, we have lost more than one billion acres of forest, with no end in sight," opine Don Melnick and Mary Pearl in an op-ed piece for The New York Times.

"The people most vulnerable to the disappearance of forests are the poor: nearly three-quarters of the 1.2 billion people defined as extremely poor live in rural areas, where they rely most directly on forests for food, fuel, fiber and building materials. But those of us in the developed world are hardly immune. Smaller forests mean fewer predators keeping insects and rodents in check in the Northeastern United States, a phenomenon linked to the spread of Lyme disease and West Nile virus, among others," they continue.

Four keys to preserving forests include: connecting local, informal foresters to better markets; recognizing the importance of forests in maintaining water and soil; seeking a global trade agreement that promotes legally, sustainability harvested timber; and protecting the role forests play in mitigating global warming, conclude Melnick, a conservation biology professor at Columbia University, and Pearl, the president of Wildlife Trust, a group that helps scientists protect nature and safeguard ecosystems. (Read more)

Click here for the U.S. Government Web site for Earth Day.

Reporters along 'endangered' rivers report on group's designation

Flooding, mining and development concerns are the reasons some rivers made an annual list of the nation's 10 most-endangered rivers compiled by American Rivers, first listed in The Rural Blog yesterday.

Kevin Home of the Monterey (Calif.) Herald writes about the Pajaro River (No. 1 on the list): "American Rivers contends that the Army Corps of Engineers' flood control plan is outdated, will destroy habitat and increase the danger of catastrophic flooding along the river. (Read more)

The Boise River (No. 6) is situated near a mine proposed by the Atlanta Gold Corp. of America. The company said it will keep mining pollution out of the river, but aside from cyanide, the mine could release millions of gallons of water laden with arsenic, John Robison, who monitors mining for the Idaho Conservation League, told Rocky Barker of the Idaho Statesman. If the company passes overcomes regulatory hurdles, then it must received a permit under the 1872 federal mining law. (Read more)

American Rivers, an environmental group, wants Arizona residents to speak out for the preservation of the Verde River (No. 10). A $200 million, 30-mile pipeline that is part of an area water-resources plan could dry up 24 miles of the river, states the group's report. "The group said citizens need to demand that planners don't allow development where water isn't safely available," reports Shaun McKinnon of The Arizona Republic. (Read more)

Indiana residents call broadband, economic development rural concerns

Residents across Indiana are participating in 16 public meetings geared toward developing a 15-year plan for the state's rural areas.

Elizabeth Mallers, of the Office of Community and Rural Affairs, said that the goal of Rural Indiana Strategy for Excellence: A 2020 Vision for the Indiana Countryside, known as RISE 2020, is to create a strategy for improving Indiana's countryside. Residents' top concerns have been broadband Internet and economic development, but the plan will not provide a “cookie cutter” solution to those issues, she told Becky Manley of The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind. (Read more)

“The reality of today’s rural Indiana is far different from the past,” states a draft of the report, which was developed from input from about 150 rural residents and service providers. The report states that “agriculture, while still important, is just one piece of today’s Indiana rural economy." Public input will be used in the final RISE 2020 plan, which is slated for release in June. Click here for a draft of the report.

Georgia becomes first state to sanction Bible classes in high schools

Georgia is believed to be the first state to offer government-sanctioned elective Bible classes, after Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill into law Thursday.

The Bible is already used in classes in Georgia and other states, and some school districts have classes devoted solely to the Bible. Georgia's new law permits elective Bible classes at high schools, but leaves it up to districts to decide whether to offer them, reports Shannon McCaffrey of The Associated Press.

Perdue also signed a bill allowing Ten Commandments displays at courthouses, which critics attacked as a blurring of the line between church and state, writes McCaffrey. National civil rights groups are monitoring how the laws are implemented before deciding on possible court challenges. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Ten Commandments displays constitutional if their primary purpose was to honor legal traditions and not to promote one religion over another. (Read more)

Governments won't be able to resist charging for wi-fi, opines columnist

Free wireless Internet is an idea being considered by cities small and large, but one columnist does not foresee them being cost-free to the public forever.

"I personally think this idea is great, but I also know there is no way that any cash-strapped city -- a category that appears to comprise all of them -- will not succumb to the financial benefit of pulling the plug on this free service, if it's ever implemented in the first place. So if you get free municipal Wi-Fi, use it and enjoy it while you can," opines John C. Dvorak in his "Second Opinion" column for MarketWatch.

"It's simple economics, and there is no such thing as a free lunch (cliché alert). Even restaurants, coffee shops and airports that have free Wi-Fi do it only as an inducement to keep people in their facilities. And often those initiatives are undone by a slick salesperson who can show the business how to 'monetize' their Wi-Fi," he continues.

"If I were to hazard a guess as to the future of free Wi-Fi anywhere in the U.S., it would end up pretty much where it started -- at small coffee houses scattered here and there. Municipal Wi-Fi will go the way of free parking. There is no free parking," concludes Dvorak. (Read more)

Small daily in N.C. overhauls news operation for more online focus

In Cleveland County, North Carolina, "The Shelby Star has blown up its newsroom – figuratively. The paper's newsroom no longer operates like a traditional newsroom and the newspaper doesn't read like a traditional newspaper. It’s more local. Easier to read. Easier to digest. More interactive. And it fuses with the paper's Web site," reports the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association.

Via a six-month effort known as the "Innovation Project," the Star (circulation 16,000) has linked its print and online products by having reporters enhance stories with online content. Reporters along with staff photographers take video cameras with them, and readers are being encouraged to submit their own comments, photos and videos. The results have paid off in the past three months, with Web traffic jumping by 47 percent to more than 1.7 million page views per month.

With the new version of its paper, The Star opted to eliminate story jumps, break in-depth pieces into smaller articles, and convert traditional “paragraph-form copy” into a “who, what, when, where” format. “For many newspaper consumers, the paragraph is a dinosaur,” said Editor Skip Foster. (Read more)

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Development and mining plans put rivers on group's endangered list

Rivers that are feeling the squeeze of rural development dominate the annual list of the nation's 10 most-endangered rivers compiled by the environmental group American Rivers.

The rivers, in order, are the Pajaro River, which flows into California's Monterey Bay and is the focus of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood-control plan; the Upper Yellowstone River in Montana, where construction is altering riverbanks; the Willamette River, which has state-authorized “toxic mixing zones;” the Salmon Trout River in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, site of a proposed nickel and copper mine; the Shenandoah River, which American Rivers says is "facing an onslaught of development;" the Boise River in Idaho, the headwaters of which a Canadian firm wants to mine; the Caloosahatchee River in south Florida, polluted by agricultural-related outflows from from Lake Okeechobee; Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed, a system of lakes, streams and rivers that is the source of the single largest salmon run on earth, on the Kvichak River, and also the site of a proposed mine; the San Jacinto River in southeast Texas, site of sand mining; and the Verde River, under increasing demand for water from fast-growing Arizona. (Click on a river to read the detailed description or click here to read a summary.)

The Washington Post focuses on No. 5, Virginia's Shenandoah River, which supplies 13 percent of the water in the Potomac River -- which provides 90 percent of the drinking water for the Washington area. American Rivers' report on the Shenandoah focuses on the six mostly rural counties, many of which are attracting national builders and the demands of thousands for new houses. "County governments along the Shenandoah have a rapidly-closing window to get a handle on runaway development before it changes the character of the river and valley forever," the environmental group says.

"Development's not the whole story -- everyone that lives in the valley is guilty in one way or other," Meryl Christiansen, a Warren County, Virginia, resident who lobbied to get the Shenandoah on the list, told Post reporter Stephanie McCrummen"Homeowners who put a lot of fertilizer on their lawns, farmers that don't protect the soil, poultry processors that dump stuff in the river."

Environmentalists want counties to pass ordinances aimed at controlling development, such as ones that encourage clustering houses and leaving open space, reports McCrummen. They also want legislation protecting areas around creeks and encouraging homeowners and farmers there to preserve natural land buffers. (Read more)

Supersized tire shortage creates problem for global mining industry

"The worldwide thirst for stuff from the ground — materials as diverse as copper and coal, gold and oil — has set off a stunning boom in just about every commodity market. But there is one item that lately has dealers in the global mining industry really scrambling: the supersize tire," reports The New York Times.

There is a shortage of the giant tires used on large dump trucks and other heavy equipment, which is creating problems for everyone from Canadian tar sands to coal mines in the U.S. and China. Prices for the tires have now surpassed $40,000. Demand is being pushed by the military for Iraq and Afghanistan, and by construction firms rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Mining firms and tire makers blame the shortage on rapid industrialization of China, India and other countries, which is eating up basic commodities, reporter Simon Romero writes. (Photo from Wyoming by Matthew Staver)

"In many ways, the tire shortage both reflects the soaring commodities prices and contributes to it. . . . In an attempt to cash in on the commodities rally, mining companies have been reactivating old mines and expanding existing operations," Romero reports. "But time and again, these firms have been stymied by a lack of available tires." Mining companies are now trying everything possible to extend the life of their tires, which usually last from 4,000 to 7,000 hours. (Read more)

Md. preservationists aim to protect farm history from development

"Maryland's oldest places have survived fires, floods and the ravages of time. With the U.S. Census predicting 1.2 million new residents in the state in 20 years, preservationists say they need to mobilize," report Mary Otto and Nelson Hernandez of The Washington Post.

Preservationists are worried that farmlands, canals and the weathered tobacco barns in Southern Maryland might not survive progress, or as painter Vicki Michael said, "what people think is progress." State officials are trying to find suitable locations for new housing, schools, utilities and roads, but preservationists do not want them to touch old houses, historic farms or the plush landscape, write Otto and Hernandez.

Development is getting closer to tobacco barns that play an important role in Maryland's agricultural history. Preservation efforts may be paying off, because the tobacco barns were named endangered in 2004 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Post notes. (Read more)

Prescription drug ODs rise in New Mexico; mainly rural problem?

Accidental prescription drug overdose deaths in New Mexico are increasing at a higher rate than those caused by illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine, reports Newswise, a research-reporting service.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports in a new study that unintentional prescription drug overdoses accounted for 1.9 deaths out of 100,000 deaths at the beginning of the 10-year study in 1994, rising to 5.3 overdose deaths out of 100,000 deaths in 2003. This represented a 179-percent increase during the 10-year period.

Sidney Schnoll, clinical professor of internal medicine and psychiatry at the Medical College of Virginia, cautioned the public about applying these findings to the entire state. “New Mexico is a relatively rural state, and one of the things we know about prescription drug abuse, particularly prescription opioid abuse, is that it is more of a problem of rural areas than urban areas,” Schnoll said. (Read more)

Tax money makes all the difference in rural Oregon schools, report says

"Students in small and rural Oregon districts that get the most tax money outperform those in similar districts that receive less, a new study shows," reports The Associated Press.

The report from the Rural School and Community Trust concluded that efforts to equalize spending on education are not completely working. “The state funding mechanism is intended to level the playing field, but it does not do so among all rural Oregon school districts,” it said. The report covered 132 districts, about two-thirds of the districts and slightly more than a third of the students in the state, and it studied four factors in comparing rural schools: financial resources, teacher quality, poverty, and community education levels, notes AP.

Districts that scored well on state assessments in mathematics and language skills were also among those that put the most local money into education. The report also noted that the best performing districts boasted the most qualified teachers, based on the number of teachers with provisional or emergency certificates, reports AP. (Read