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The Rural Blog Archive: December 2004 Friday, Dec. 31, 2004 U. S. Postal Service cuts may further diminish rural mail delivery The nation's back roads won't escape the economic and cultural impact of changes that may come during the new year from a possible overhaul of the U.S. Postal Service that is being considered in Congress. But Robert Gutsche Jr. writes in a special report in The Washington Post, “Washington lawmakers are still stalled over how much flexibility to give the Postal Service in setting its own prices and whether the service should have more control over its pension savings and other retirement benefits. But with the Postal Service thinking about another postage increase, Congress probably will address the proposed legislation early in the new session.” For the past 10 years, the USPS has been closing post offices to consolidate the sorting of mail at regional hubs and adding technology to the way workers handle mail to save the agency money, writes Gutsche. Those changes have already had lasting effects on rural mail service:“In tiny Woodman, Wis., for instance, the federal government closed its post office almost five years ago and initially moved operations into a small tavern where people would sort and pick up their mail. But mail has not been sorted there in at least three years. Now when people send mail, it gets postmarked three towns away.” Grutsche reports a glimmer of hope for small communities around the nation. “These closings mean jobs to small communities, but there is little to suggest an overhaul of USPS operations would signal a large drop in the need for rural mail carriers.” USPS officials told the newspaper, postal jobs overall are expected to decline through 2012 as post offices continue to turn to technology. Rural carriers numbered 46,000 in the mid-1990s rising to about 63,000 today, one-fifth of the country's total carriers. North Carolina board orders new ag commissioner election; court fight looms The North Carolina Board of Elections has decided to resolve a two-month-old fight over the election for commissioner of agriculture by ordering a new election, but Republicans on the board are promising a court fight to overturn the plan, which could cost taxpayers more than $3 million. The board “voted Wednesday to hold a statewide election in March or April,” reports Sharif Durhams of The Charlotte Observer’s Raleigh Bureau. “Republicans . . . cried foul. They argued the board's three Democrats crafted the election through an illegal procedural move and that a judge will cancel the new vote. New elections typically require support of four of the five board members. The Democrats argued they had backed a new election with four votes before -- a limited revote on the race in coastal Carteret County to replace more than 4,400 lost votes. Technically, the Democrats said, they were simply amending that order to apply statewide. The motion by board member Bob Cordle of Charlotte passed 3-2.” Returns show Republican Steve Troxler with a 2,287-vote lead over incumbent Democrat Britt Cobb, but “a faulty electronic voting machine lost 4,438 Carteret votes, enough votes to make a difference in the race,” Durhams reports. “Troxler said he probably will appeal the ruling.” Appalachian Law School shooting case settled for $1 million The family of a student killed in a shooting at the Appalachian School of Law, along with three students wounded in the attack, settled their multimillion-dollar lawsuits against the school yesterday for $1 million. The cases had been moved to Roanoke for fear the Wise County judiciary is too closely tied to the school. Rex Bowman of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports officials at the Grundy, Va., school “accepted no responsibility for the results of a disgruntled student's decision to open fire on his classmates and school administrators in 2002, even though students had warned that the student was potentially dangerous.” School President Lu Ellsworth said outside a Roanoke courtroom the school agreed to settle the suits to avoid a lengthy and expensive legal battle, writes Bowman. Ellsworth told Bowman, "I do not believe there was any basis to predict this kind of occurrence or that any violence would occur on campus." The family of shooting victim Angela Dales and the three survivors filed their suits in January seeking nearly $23 million. The lawsuits claimed poor security at the school and a negligent attitude “allowed a gun-wielding student to turn the campus into a scene of bloody carnage on Jan. 16, 2002.” Dales' father, Danny Dales, said family members decided to settle to put the tragedy behind them and avoid a lengthy legal process: "I'm of a settled mind now, more so than I've ever been. This is the best, I think, for my family." The student who fired on school officials and students soon after learning he was being forced out for poor grades, Peter Odighizuwa, pleaded guilty to murder and is serving six life sentences. He was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, but after treatment he was deemed mentally competent to stand trial. Scavengers scour Southern Kentucky town, looking for radio treasure A Christmas promotion by a Kentucky radio station turned into the lead story for the local weekly newspaper this week, as hundreds of people searched for a holiday treasure trove that proved more difficult to find than the station expected. “Treasure hunt keeps Albany on the move” read the main headline in the Clinton County News, above a long story and photograph chronicling the swarms of citizens who were scouring the area around the town’s main intersection – which WANY Radio’s clues indicated to many was the likely location of a document with instructions on how to claim the $700 in prizes and $500 in cash. “We expected someone to find it during the first of Christmas week,” three weeks after the first clues were broadcast, Pam Allred, owner of WANY, told the News. “Randy (Speck, the station manager) and I have seen people within two feet of it and then all of a sudden they just turned around and walked away.” On Monday, the station began eliminating some clues, which had been distributed to local merchants as part of a shop-at-home promotion in the town of 2,000 and county of 10,000. “The entire idea behind the hunt was ‘Shop at Home.’ That’s why we have taken a clue to each store every day ... to get people into the stores,” Speck said. “I’m sure many people haven’t been into some of the stores in over 20 years.” Treats on Appalachian air: Tonight, a taste of country on W.Va. Public Radio “Tonight, Joe Dobbs brings a hot-apple-pie musical treat to the windowsill as his show 'Music from the Mountains,' presents 'An Evening in Mayberry' at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public Radio.” That's a countryfied lead that likely will have listeners salivating, and that we just had to quote verbatim. Herald-Dispatch music columnist Dave Lavender invites listeners to tune to Huntington's WVWV at 89.9 FM. Lavender writes that the program, recorded live at last September’s Glenville State College Bluegrass Festival, features festival organizer and Mayberry aficionado and fellow fiddler Buddy Griffin as well as the bluegrass band known in TV land as "The Darlings" and by bluegrass fans as The Dillards. West Virginia Public Radio can be heard in portions of surrounding states -- Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. For more info go online at www.joedobbs.com. Tomorrow: Saturday Night Jamboree, pioneer country cavalcade, lives again Anyone who grew up in the 50s and early 60s in the area of West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky and southeastern Ohio will remember a “home-baked” television tradition know as the “WSAZ Saturday Night Jamboree” that showcased local and national talent live for 11 years from 1953 to 1964. That tradition will be resurrected this weekend in a wave of country nostalgia in Huntington, reports the Herald-Dispatch. The paper details preparations by a number of performers and program talent who either dreamed of appearing on the show years ago in their youth, or are descendants of the show’s original staff. “Saturday night at 7, Rick Ruggles, a lifelong musician and songwriter, fulfills a boyhood dream -- he gets to play the Jamboree,” writes music columnist Dave Lavender. “Ruggles, 57, is just one of 14 local classic country artists who will be playing the Saturday Night Jamboree, a free show at the Jean Carlo Stephenson Auditorium.” The show will be hosted by Alan Sturm, the son of original "Jamboree" host Dean Sturm. The old show was “Like a home-baked Grand Ole Opry-style show… (and) featured a stream of local talent from The Haylofters, a square dance group, to singers and talented musicians from near and far that included Bobby Bare, Loren Greene, and many others,” writes Lavender. Oldest N. C. resident and fourth oldest documented American dies at 112 The oldest North Carolinian and oldest graduate of Duke University -- who was born six years before the Spanish-American War and lived through two world wars and the birth of the automobile, aviation, television and the Internet -- has died less than a month before her 113th birthday. The Durham Herald-Sun reports that Ruby Lee Markham Drakeford, a retired teacher, died Wednesday of advanced age and was developing pneumonia. Drakeford was born in Durham on Jan. 25, 1892, and graduated from Trinity College, now Duke University, in 1912, the year the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank, The Associated Press noted. Curtis Booker of Durham, whose great-grandmother was Drakeford's aunt, said "She was just shy of her 12th birthday when the Wright Brothers flew." Special reports still available, will be updated on Web site Special reports by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues' staff and advisory committee remain posted on this page of the Institute's Web site. Reports on current topics, such as the epidemic of methamphetamine in rural America, will be updated from time to time, along with news of upcoming events. Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004 Railroad signal malfunctions may contribute to widespread train-car collisions A New York Times examination of signal malfunctions at rail crossings, focused on a look at fatal accidents in Illinois, suggests railroads may have a wide problem with signals, affecting many rural areas. Walt Bogdanich of the Times reports
that when he began asking questions, federal regulators backed
off their earlier assurances that rail-crossing malfunctions
are rare and "disclosed that since a fatal accident in
Michigan in the spring, they have been investigating whether
a 'type of Amtrak train' might be failing The Times' computerized analysis of federal
records "found that from 1999 through 2003, there were
at least 400 grade-crossing accidents in which signals either
did not activate or were alleged to have malfunctioned,"
Boggdanich reports. "At least 45 people were killed and
130 injured in those accidents, Also, since 2000, railroads have filed about 2,300 reports of the most serious malfunctions: short signals or no signals at all. Most did not involve accidents, but "My concern is that this is just the tip of the iceberg," James E. Hall, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told Bogdanich. "If we had that type of record in aviation, it would be unacceptable." Peggy Wilhide, a spokeswoman for the Association of American Railroads, "played down the significance of signal malfunctions," the Times reports, "saying a recent federal report found that the great majority of crossing accidents were caused by unsafe drivers. Ms. Wilhide also emphasized that most of the reports of signal malfunctions could not be confirmed." Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Steven W. Kulm told the newspaper that his agency's efforts had "contributed to the dramatic decrease in the loss of life and injury at highway-rail grade crossings." U.S. to lift Canadian beef ban in March following mad-cow scare The U.S. has given the all-clear beginning in March to cattle imports from Canada, 19 months after a mad-cow disease scare closed the border between the two trading giants, reports The Associated Press. The new import policy will permit cattle younger than 30 months and certain other animals and products. The Agriculture Department said the ruling, which will take effect March 7, came after determining Canada is a “minimal-risk region,” the first country recognized as such. Scientists say cattle under 30 months of age are too young to contract mad cow disease. The cattle also must be transported in sealed containers to a feedlot or slaughter, and are not allowed to move to more than one U.S. feedlot. Outgoing Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said in a statement, “After conducting an extensive review, we are confident that imports of certain commodities from regions of minimal risk can occur with virtually no risk to human or animal health.” Canadian sheep and goats under 12 months, as well as meat and other products from those animals, are also allowed in under the new policy. Elizabeth Whiting, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Agriculture Ministry told AP, “Certainly we’re very pleased. It’s something that farmers have been waiting for for a long time in Canada.” Kentucky budget pinch will tighten if state picks up tobacco-money tab Kentucky taxpayers may pick up a $100 million-plus tab due to a federal judge’s ruling that tobacco companies don’t have to make additional payments to farmers in 14 states, reports The Courier-Journal. Tom Loftus writes in the Louisville newspaper that “Kentucky law specifies that if the annual payments from tobacco companies to farmers fall short … then the state will pay the difference.” Gov. Ernie Fletcher's chief of staff, Stan Cave, told Loftus the judge's decision may put the state on the hook for making good on the “Phase 2 payments.” The ruling has been appealed, however, by Kentucky and six other states. Cave said because of that and because of other legal and policy questions raised by the order it would be weeks before the impact would become clear, writes Loftus. But Cave said an early analysis showed the impact could be well over $100 million for the current budget. "That ruling has been a setback to us in pulling this together, our ideas for the next budget. We're still analyzing the effect of it and how much money we may have to come up with," Cave added. Kentucky already faces a $526 million shortfall in Medicaid, which the governor and lawmakers will face in balancing and passing a budget during the legislative session that begins Tuesday. The state is operating without a legislatively enacted budget because of an impasse over Fletcher's tax-reform proposals, but a judge has said that if no budget is passed by June 30, only essential state services may continue. Bobwhite quail, almost absent in Ohio, to rebound under restocking program The sound of the bobwhite quail, nearly silenced by blizzards and extreme cold, and perhaps loss of habitat, may be heard more frequently in coming months throughout much of Ohio thanks to a new restocking program, reports The Herald-Dispatch. Tim Stephens writes in the Huntington, W.Va., newspaper that the small bird, once prevalent in southern and western Ohio, was “a favorite of hunters seeking tasty wild game” until the blizzards of 1977 and 1978 and extreme cold nearly killed them off. But, now the Ohio Division of Wildlife has a plan to restore quail to 35 counties. “The Northern Bobwhite Quail Habitat/Upland Bird Initiative plans to create 250,000 acres of essential upland bird habitat, with 14,200 acres proposed for Ohio,” writes Stephens. “The program intends to create nesting and brood-rearing cover along the borders of crop-bearing fields, as well as establish travel corridors for the quail.” Steven A. Gray, chief of the Division of Wildlife, told the newspaper, "It’s a tremendous opportunity for private landowners interested in attracting bobwhite quail." The opportunity could be profitable, too, reports Stephens. The program has a one-time incentive payment of $100 per acre for landowners willing to participate and meet the qualifications. The program also will make up to 90 percent of the costs of establishing potential quail habitat recoverable. Landowners also might be eligible for annual rental payments for up to 10 years, if their land produces quail. Environmentalists and loggers battle over membership in anti-logging group Loggers trying to join an anti-logging group in Eastern Kentucky are charging that environmentalists are discriminating against them by blocking their entry. “In a twist in the ongoing battle over logging in the Daniel Boone National Forest, loggers have been applying for membership in Kentucky Heartwood, a group dedicated to stamping out logging on public lands,” writes Roger Alford, Pikeville bureau chief for The Associated Press. The loggers claim they want to join to give the group a “broader perspective on logging issues.” Twelve loggers who have applied have been turned down. Greg Wells, owner of Green Tree Forest Products in Wallingford, told Alford, "We got our rejection letters late last week." Kentucky Heartwood member Sarah Mincey said the group doesn't have to take in members who disagree with its mission and philosophy. "We're a private organization, and we can accept or not accept anyone," she told AP. "We wouldn't be comfortable. They wouldn't be comfortable. They are radically different in their beliefs." Loggers and the 280-member Kentucky Heartwood have been at odds over a proposal by the U.S. Forest Service to cut storm-damaged trees on more than 12,500 acres of the Daniel Boone, writes Alford. Loggers favor the proposal. Kentucky Heartwood adamantly opposes it. Bush's soft sell swayed Amish and Mennonites in rural Pennsylvania In a story datelined Bird-In-Hand, Pa., Evelyn Nieves of The Washington Post reports on Republicans' success in mobilizing "the famously reclusive Old Order Amish -- who shun most modern ways -- along with their slightly less-strict brethren, the Mennonites. Democrats laughed at the very idea. The Amish had no use for politics. Were the Republicans that desperate? But the GOP effort, underscored by President Bush's meeting with some Amish families in early July, did the trick." "Yup, we voted this time. . . . I didn't vote for the last 30 years, but Bush seemed to have our Christian principles," an aging Old Order Amish man told Nieves, who described him thusly: "He had a beard that straggled down to his chest and bright blue eyes. His first name, he said, is Amos, but in keeping with the Amish edict against calling attention to oneself, he would not give his last name." Amos said "They knew we didn't like publicity, so the president met with us all in an office at Lapp's (Electric). He shook everyone's hand -- even the littlest ones in their mother's arms -- and he told us all he hoped we would exercise our right and vote." But the president didn't ask them directly to vote for him, and "That's another thing we liked about him," Amos said. Also, 4,000 Republican volunteers "blanketed
Lancaster County for months and visited the fairs and farm
auctions in Amish country talking up the president's Christian
values. That helped them think abortion might be outlawed,"
Nieves reports, paraphrasing an Amish man named Sam. "Thinking
of Bush's Christian Another Amish man named Amos, also paraphrased by Nieves, said his people "voted with pure hearts, he said, asking for nothing in return. Or almost nothing." Then she quotes him directly: "We're trying to get tickets for the inauguration. Do you know how to go about getting those?" Kentucky coal fatalities record low, if current trend continues Kentucky coal mining may report its safest year ever, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. Lee Mueller, the newspaper’s veteran Eastern Kentucky Bureau chief, writes, “Barring more accidents before Jan. 1, Kentucky this year will tie its record for the fewest number of coal miners killed on the job since the federal government began keeping records in 1900.” Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Caylor tells Mueller, "It makes me cringe to say this, knocking figuratively on wood. Some people are superstitious." Preliminary figures from the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration show five coal-mining fatalities in Kentucky in 2004, four fewer than last year. Nationwide, 25 coal-mining deaths had been reported as of Dec. 15, a new U.S. record, reports Mueller. According to federal statistics, Kentucky's record low of five fatalities came in 2001, a year before the national record low of 27 coal-mining deaths was reported. The numbers show a vast improvement in safety in the nation's coal mines since the first half of the 20th century, when thousands died every year, but no one was boasting yesterday, writes Mueller. A cautious Suzy Bohnert, an MSHA spokeswoman, told Mueller, "These are preliminary numbers. It's not the end of the year yet." But, Chuck Wolfe, a spokesman for the state mining agency, tells Mueller the numbers are consistent with a downward trend in mining fatalities since the 1970s, when Kentucky averaged 37 mining deaths a year for the decade. The annual fatality average dropped from 24.2 in the 1980s to 11.7 in the 1990s. From 2000 to 2003, the state averaged 8.4 mine deaths a year. Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004 Coal proponents, environmentalists to face off in national energy debate A new federal report suggests an energy future for the nation in which coal plays an important role, but efforts to utilize this controversial national resource, with significant financial and ecological impact for much of Appalachia, will face challenges from environmentalists, Gannett News Service report reports. “Despite the rising cost of gasoline, oil and natural gas, the next session of Congress will begin in January with no clear consensus on a national energy policy,” Raju Chebium writes. "Some of the debate focuses on coal, which supplies 52 percent of U.S. electricity and is the country’s most plentiful fuel source. Coal-fired power plants are bitterly opposed by environmentalists who say they contribute to global warming. But utilities are proposing to build 100 additional plants in the next few years. The report recommends investing billions in coal, writes Chebium, including “$4 billion in tax incentives for companies that adopt technology to convert coal to a gas and heat the gas to make electricity … and setting aside $3 billion to build plants that would demonstrate to the electricity industry that a technology called "carbon capture and sequestration" is ecologically friendly and economically viable.” The energy commission’s endorsement of so-called clean coal technology is good news for Appalachia, mining companies and utilities. But it’s disheartening for some environmentalists who want the country to focus on cleaner energy sources such as wind and solar power, writes Chebium. Critics say previous research has resulted in little or no technology in wide use today. The Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, has called it badly managed. Environmental organizations such as the U.S. Public Interest Research Group say clean coal is a laughable oxymoron. Navin Nayak, an environmental advocate at USPIRG told Chebium, "Some of the lessons we have learned from the clean coal program is it lacks accountability, and it lacks any clear public benefit." Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association said, “Greater attention to coal means more jobs in Appalachian coalfields, especially for those with computer and engineering skills.” Supporters of coal say it’s abundant and allows the country to depend less on oil imported from the Middle East. Appalachia alone has some 66 billion tons of coal, enough to last more than 200 years. Wyoming and West Virginia are the top two coal-producing states. Tennessee joining 22 other states in illegal drugs tax; opponents say laws ‘absurd’ The state of Tennessee will begin taxing drug dealers with the new year, expecting to raise millions of dollars in revenue, but critics are doubtful the tax will have any effect on the drug trade and say the law is ridiculous. Bonna de la Cruz reports in The Tennessean that the new excise tax goes into effect Sunday, on peddlers of illegal substances – from marijuana and moonshine to cocaine and oxycontin. A10-person agency has been created to assess and collect the tax, at a one-time cost to the state of $1.2 million. Officials expect to spend $800,000 annually on the effort, but estimate it will gross $3.6 million in new revenue in the first year. “Drug dealers can go to any of the state revenue offices within 48 hours of coming into possession of unauthorized substances. They pay the tax and get a 'stamp' to put on the drugs showing they have paid up … (or) the tax will be collected is when police make drug busts. … If the suspects cannot make immediate payment, the state seizes and sells any assets … to pay off the liability,” the Nashville paper reports. Bob Acuff, a small-business owner and neighborhood watch director in east Nashville, told Cruz he's anxious to see what impact the tax has on the drug trade in Nashville: ''I'm happy to hear they're at least trying something.'' Eric Jans, insurance agent and neighborhood activist, said, ''If it's bringing in extra money and if they can collect it off the backs of the drug dealers, that's a good thing. But I'm not sure it will reduce crime.” Proponents for the legalization of marijuana call the Tennessee law and similar ones in other states absurd. Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told Cruz, ''It's patently ridiculous. Legal nitwittery. On the one hand, it says you can't own a substance. And on the other hand, it creates a taxing scheme. … The law on its face makes no sense.'' Tennessee will be one of 23 states taxing illegal drugs, including Kentucky, with which it shares a long border. Tennessee’s law was modeled after one in North Carolina, which has reaped $83 million in the 14 years the law has been in effect. Tennessee regional government cooperative to disappear along with 2004 A nine-county regional governmental cooperative agency covering much of eastern Tennessee, created to coordinate regional development, will sunset with the new year, reports The Knoxville News-Sentinel. Scott Barker writes, “ The regional civic visioning organization will be honoring the sunset clause of its charter, which calls for the group to drop below the horizon after five years.” The group, formed in 1999, called itself "Nine Counties. One Vision,” and has been “a high-profile clearinghouse for ideas to weave the interests of the region into a single fabric.” The effort focused on fostering greater cooperation between residents, institutions and leaders in the Knoxville region -- Knox, Anderson, Blount, Grainger, Jefferson, Loudon, Roane, Sevier and Union counties. Organizers say they hope the initiatives begun by the cooperative will continue to grow during the coming years, even without an umbrella organization to nurture them. Executive Director Lynne Fugate told Barker, "They did not want to set this up as a permanent entity that would need resources and compete with other organizations that need donations. If you have a 5-year time frame, it keeps your feet to the fire." Fugate said the organization has been successful, despite some setbacks in individual initiatives. Soon-to-be unprotected grizzlies being killed off; environmentalists concerned Dozens of grizzly bears in and around national parks have been killed at the hands of humans over the past year and environmentalist say while the species isn’t in trouble yet, they are concerned plans to remove the bears from protected status may be moving too quickly reports The Associated Press. Staff writer Becky Bohrer reports on an alarming increase in deaths in and around Glacier National Park where, “Seven (grizzlies) were hit by trains or cars. Ten were killed illegally, often shot and left to die. Thirteen were killed by wildlife officials because they had menaced humans or had otherwise become a nuisance. One was killed in self-defense.” A total of 31 grizzly bears in or near the national park in northwestern Montana have died this year as a result of human actions. “That's the most of any year since the bears were listed as a threatened species nearly 30 years ago, and nearly double the number killed in 2003. Eighteen of the 31 were females,” writes Bohrer But state and federal wildlife officials say that while the number is unusually high it is not cause for alarm -- yet. They say more people moving into bear territory, and a poor berry crop that has pushed more grizzlies out of the woods in search of food is partially to blame. Environmentalists however are concerned about these deaths and others nationwide. They also point to the deaths of grizzlies in and around Yellowstone National Park, where run-ins with hunters account for nearly half the19 grizzly bear deaths in 2004. A government proposal to drop federal protection for grizzlies there could come as early as next year. Louisa Willcox, Wild Bears Project director for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Livingston, Mont., told AP, "I think we're moving way too rapidly, given the warning signs on the horizon. We should take heed and slow down and really look at, and solve, the problems." Hunting and habitat loss contributed to the bears' decline in the West early in the 20th century. In 1975, grizzly bears in the lower 48 states were listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened. At that time, there were probably 200 to 250 grizzlies in the Yellowstone ecosystem, situated mostly in Wyoming. Today the estimate ranges from 550 to 600. Western North Carolina radio legend retires after half-century at the mike A western North Carolina radio mainstay will sign-off for the final time tomorrow after 50 years in broadcasting, reports the Asheville Citizen Times. Entertainment editor Tony Kiss writes of Scotty Rhodarmer’s half-century on Asheville radio station WWNC/AM- 570 as morning announcer. Rhodarmer is retiring, and “Local radio will never be the same," writes Kiss. “The last show, on Thursday morning, marks the end of an amazing career and a last lingering bit of the "old" WWNC, the cherished hometown station that vanished when corporate owner Clear Channel Communications dropped its country music format two years ago and switched to news-talk.” Read Wilson, who had been with WWNC since 1947, told Kiss, “Rhodarmer's retirement is hard to take. Sure, the guy deserves a break. He's been on that grueling early-morning shift since the mid 1960s. … All those years and that uplifting theme song "Carolina in the Morning." Rhodarmer started at the station in 1954, when it was still carrying soap operas, comedies, dramas and other radio shows from the CBS network. “Through it all, Scotty remained at the microphone. At one point, he had the largest share of audience of any radio personality in America and WWNC had the largest share of audience of any station in the nation. Unbelievable but true. That's how important the old WWNC was to our community,” Kiss writes. “But that was then. This is now. Scotty gets to sleep in. I start a new radio routine. Life goes on. But it won't be the same.” The Rural Calendar: Can Kentucky replace tobacco with food? Let's find out When tobacco is gone, what will the future hold for farmers in Kentucky, which has more tobacco growers than any other state? Two unlikely allies at the University of Kentucky, the College of Agriculture and the Gaines Center for the Humanities, have teamed up with Partners for Family Farms to sponsor an unusual symposium to examine future visions for Kentucky agriculture, Kentucky’s rural communities, and the local market for healthy food. The symposium will be held Friday and Saturday, March 4-5. Practical workshops with agriculture economists and other technical experts will be punctuated by plenary addresses by well-known commentators on community, food, and agriculture. They will include Michael Pollan, author, environmentalist, and Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley; restaurateur and chef Alice Waters, whose foundation supports efforts to educate children about sustainable agriculture; and Jon Carloftis – writer, Kentucky native, environmental activist andgarden designer to the stars. Their perspectives will be supplemented by three creative writers who will read their work centered on agriculture and community on Friday evening, March 4: Wendell Berry, Kentucky novelist, poet, and essayist, perhaps the foremost American writer about rural community and agriculture; Barbara Kingsolver, novelist and agrarian advocate; and Davis McCombs, winner of the Yale Younger Poets Award in 2000, whose current work centers on tobacco agriculture in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave region. In addition to their major presentations, these prominent thinkers will engage with about 100 local and national activists over two days of workshops to create a new vision of post-tobacco Kentucky agriculture. Sessions will have an interlocking series of themes on improving – and integrating agriculture and food systems into – local communities and economies. The aim of the symposium is to consider all aspects of Kentucky’s rural agricultural communities – the economic, the environmental, the social, and the spiritual – and imagine a new future for Kentucky’s rural communities. “If these often discordant voices can be brought into harmony, then we can look forward to a sharply improved future for all of our citizens, urban and rural,” organizers of the symposium say. The symposium will conclude with the annual Phyllis Pray Bober Memorial Feast, created by the undergraduate fellows of the Gaines Center and presented by local chef Ouita Michael, a former Gaines Fellow and James Beard Honoree, and the staff of the Holly Hill Inn. Mike Seager, a prominent expert on Appalachian music, will perform with music professor Ron Pen, director of the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music, and The Reel World String Band. For further information, contact Dan Rowland of the Gaines Center for the Humanities at 859-257-1537 or hisdan@uky.edu; Bonnie Tanner of the College of Agriculture at 859-257-3887 or bonniet@uky.edu; or Sue Weant of Partners for Family Farms at 233-3056 or msdweant@aol.com. Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004 New federal emergency-worker training requirements could thin rural ranks Emergency medical crews in rural areas fear proposed national standards could thin their ranks by more than doubling the amount of training they must have. The Associated Press reports new certification rules are being developed for federal regulators by doctors, EMTs and state emergency medical directors. The story centers on the 17-member, mostly volunteer ambulance squad in Center, N.D., serving all of Oliver County as an example of the potential impact. Squad leader Mickie Eide told AP, “A lot of people can't comprehend what it's like to drive 345 miles and not see a house, not see anything, and to have to cover that. If you keep requiring us to do more, there's going to be less of us to do it.'' Supporters, however, say more training would ensure better emergency service nationwide. But in rural areas where volunteer crews are the rule, many fear the change will limit the pool of new recruits and force experienced EMTs to drop out, AP reports. In North Dakota, basic-level EMTs need 110 hours of training for initial certification. Under the new standards as currently proposed, the state Emergency Medical Service Association estimates that basic EMTs would at least have to double that, AP reports. In places like Center, a town of about 680 people, crew leaders think a change that steep could push about half their volunteers out of the service. Bob Brown, director of the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians, told AP, “This is one of the most difficult decisions that I have been involved in EMS (emergency medical service) in the last 20 years at the national level. The goal is a national standard that would guarantee highly trained workers in ambulances across the nation.” Bob Bass, the Maryland state emergency medical director who sits on a national committee overseeing the reclassification efforts, said the proposed changes were designed to give EMTs the skills to treat conditions they commonly encounter. “They decided that an EMT could handle more than we currently handle.'' ‘Cumberland Plateau’ doesn’t sound touristy enough for Tennesseans Officials in the Tennessee section of the Cumberland Plateau, “a region rich in natural beauty and pioneering heritage but often lagging the rest of the state in economic progress,” want to be known by a longer, somewhat different name to build their tourist trade, writes Leon Alligood in The (Nashville) Tennessean. The moniker they want from the National Park Service is Cumberland Plateau National Heritage Corridor, which would make the area eligible for federal and state money and private matching funds to “restore, enhance and interpret a community's national and historic resources,” Alligood writes. “In some cases, buildings are saved from destruction, tourist sites are professionally marketed and trails are improved.” Marketing is at the heart of the idea to make the plateau the 24th heritage area designated by the park service. ''Hopefully, all of us working together will create an area like the Smokies in East Tennessee. When you say 'Smokies,' you know where they are and all that's available to do. We envision the same thing happening on the plateau,'' said Scott Sandman of the Fentress County Chamber of Commerce. Alligood reports that the plateau – apparently referring only to its Tennessee section – “has 486,000 acres of publicly owned recreation land, compared with 517,000 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” which lies to the east, in Tennessee and North Carolina. Among the plateau properties are the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and 15 state parks – including Fall Creek Falls, the tallest waterfall in the Eastern United States and part of the line of cliffs that marks the plateau’s western boundary. The region includes all or most of at least eight Tennessee counties and parts of 10 or so others. “The region contains about 3.8 million acres of woodlands,” Alligood reports. “According to the World Wildlife Fund, the area represents one of the most biologically diverse temperate forests in the world.” An Associated Press rewrite of his story adds, “It also has the emerging Cumberland Trail, which will connect Cumberland Gap on the Kentucky border with the Tennessee River Gorge near Chattanooga.” The trail, designated a linear park, would connect with the new Pine Mountain Trail State Park in Kentucky. Sherpa Guides says of the Volunteer State's part of the region, “From the outset until the present day, the plateau has remained Tennessee's last frontier, still sparsely populated in comparison with other parts of the state.” The Cumberland Plateau stretches from northeastern Alabama to the borders of Ohio and West Virginia, where it becomes the Allegheny Plateau. It lies mainly in Kentucky, but its name is by far most used in Tennessee, where much of the topography is more like a tableland, the dictionary synonym for plateau, than the more heavily eroded but otherwise geologically identical area in Eastern Kentucky and upper southwest Virginia. Residents of those states generally say those areas are in the Appalachian Mountains -- which actually are higher ridges to the east and south. Central American farmers losing fight against multinational supermarket giants In a more rapid realization of fears prevalent in the U.S., The New York Times reports giant multinational supermarket chains, in a little over a decade, are crushing competition from Central American farmers and the cooperatives they formed in a fervent attempt to even the competitive playing field. In a David-and-Goliath comparison, Celia W. Dugger details the efforts of a co-op in Guatemala to deal with the country’s main supermarket chain. The co-op’s membership has dwindled to 8 from 300: “For a time, the farmer's cooperative… managed to sell vegetables to the chain, part owned by the giant Dutch multinational, Ahold, which counts Stop & Shop among its assets. But the co-op's members lacked the expertise, as well as the money to invest in the modern greenhouses, drip irrigation and pest control that would have helped them meet supermarket specifications.” Dugger writes, “Across Latin America, supermarket chains partly or wholly owned by global corporate goliaths like Ahold, Wal-Mart and Carrefour have revolutionized food distribution in the short span of a decade and have now begun to transform food growing, too.” She reports that lower prices, choice and convenience make megastores more popular, but millions of small farmers are struggling to survive -- and may join streams of desperate migrants to America and the urban slums of their own countries. “Their declining fortunes, economists and agronomists fear, could worsen inequality in a region where the gap between rich and poor already yawns cavernously and the concentration of land in the hands of an elite has historically fueled cycles of rebellion and violent repression,” Dugger writes. Thomas Reardon, an agricultural economist at Michigan State University told her, "It's like being on a train with a glass on a table and it's about to fall off and break. Everyone sees the glass on the table - but do they see it shaking? Do they see the edge? The edge is the structural changes in the market." In the 1990s, supermarkets went from controlling 10 to 20 percent of the market in the region to dominating it, a transition that took 50 years in the U.S., say researchers at Michigan State and the Latin American Center for Rural Development in Santiago, Chile. West Virginia-based education group gets national television spotlight The over-worn stereotype of Appalachia lagging the nation in educational innovation is being challenged this week, as a national television spotlight is focused on a West Virginia-based nonprofit group -- to which school leaders nationwide are looking to close racial achievement gaps, train teachers and evaluate new programs to boost student achievement. The Charleston Gazette reports the Appalachian Education Lab has helped schools across West Virginia and the rest of the country for 38 years. This week, cable networks CNBC and The Discovery Channel will spotlight AEL. “Fox NFL commentator and football legend Terry Bradshaw selected AEL for ‘The Best of Bradshaw’ and “Bradshaw’s Pick of the Week,’ two shows that feature the ‘best and brightest’ nonprofits and businesses in the United States,” Eric Eyre writes. Bradshaw’s “Pick of the Week” appears from 7 to 8 a.m. daily on CNBC, with the 'Best' on Discovery between 7:30 and 8 a.m. Wednesday. Eyre quotes Bradshaw saying in a press release, “AEL has flourished into a national educational research training powerhouse. They’ve set out to create a culture of learning in schools across the nation, where everything is always fresh and exciting because everyone is always learning.” AEL employs more than 80 people and has a $15 million annual budget. About two-thirds of the nonprofit’s work comes from federal contracts. As examples of AEL’s innovative work, Eyre cites one program where AEL has worked closely with school officials in recent years to narrow the racial achievement gap through a project called Maximizing Achievement of African-American Children in Kanawha County. AEL workers have organized community meetings at Lincoln County schools, and in southern West Virginia, it is working with the National Science Foundation to improve science education. Virginia medical college starts outreach program for rural poor In a concerted effort to better serve its rural Appalachian communities, doctors and students from the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg will begin working at a Smyth County health clinic next month through a program that college officials hope will extend to free clinics throughout southwest Virginia and beyond, reports The New River Valley Current. Kevin Miller reports that beginning in mid-January, one doctor and four students will spend every Friday treating patients in the Smyth County Free Clinic as part of a pilot program funded by the college and the Smyth County Community Foundation. If the pilot program is successful, administrators hope to replicate the program at free clinics in Christiansburg, Pulaski, Narrows, Roanoke and elsewhere. Dr. Jan Willcox, an associate dean at the college, tells Miller, "Our mission is to improve health care for rural and underserved Appalachia. We recruit students from the region ... so it's a perfect fit for us to have an opportunity to make a difference in the communities that are within our target area." Mel Leaman, director of the Smyth County Free Clinic, said he hopes the program could persuade some of students to open up practices in rural southwest Virginia, which is one of the main missions of the college. Monday, Dec. 27, 2004 Farm prices are high, and so are subsidies, but some rural towns don’t feel it Timothy Egan writes in yesterday’s New York Times: “Despite the fact that farm income has doubled in two years, federal subsidies have also gone up nearly 40 percent over the same period -- projected at $15.7 billion this year, and $130 billion over the last nine years. And that bounty is drawing fire from people who say that at this moment of farm prosperity, the nation's subsidy system has never made less sense.” Egan cites some “deeply steeped in the system, such as Keith Collins, the chief economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who tells him. “I struggle with the same question: How the hell can you have such high government payments if farmers had such a great year?” The answer, Collins said, is that farmers use market timing to maximize prices and subsidies. “A farmer can sell his crop early at a high price, say, in a futures contract, and still collect a subsidy check after the harvest from the government if prices are down over all. The money is not tied to what the farmer actually received for his crop. The farmer does not even have to sell the crop to get the check, only prove that the market has dropped below a certain set rate,” Egan explains. “But because nearly 70 percent of the subsidies go to the top 10 percent of agricultural producers, the recent prosperity is not seen or felt among many small to medium-size growers who keep the struggling counties of the Great Plains alive. Though some retailers in places like Iowa and Kansas say that the boost in farm income promises a good Christmas season, merchants here say they are not feeling any uptick.” Egan quotes Ed Miller, whose feed and seed store that caters to small farmers in Sidney, Neb., as saying that “his business was not up despite the increase in farm income because most of the big corporate farms that are doing particularly well do not buy from the local seed dealers. So it is not surprising that the current subsidy system is drawing home-grown criticism from people like Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, who says it is only widening the gap between large and smaller farmers, while not helping rural America.” Egan also notes that “Every subsidy payment in the country can be found on a Web site put together by the Environmental Working Group, which advocates an overhaul of the farm payment system. The site has become a must-read for farmers, and receives about a million hits a day, the group says.” Madness of 'meth' in Kentucky and Indiana detailed in three-part series A three-part series by The Courier-Journal documents in detail the breadth, depth and destructive scope of the epidemic of methamphetamine production and use in Kentucky and Indiana -- a plague that is straining the states' social structure and leaving a trail of human ruin and misery, especially in rural areas. The series began Sunday. In the first part, by reporters Deborah Yetter, Harold Adams and Alan Maimon, the Louisville newspaper details the strain the meth epidemic puts on law enforcement, the suffering it inflicts on children, the lives it has ruined and some of the people who have escaped its grip. Today’s installment by reporters Laura Bauer and Harold Adams looks at Kentucky’s and Indiana’s delay in reacting to the growing threat and how other states had already restricted the purchase of drug ingredients used to make meth.Twenty-three-year old Brianna Jenkins of Louisville, a recovering user who was living in a car before her family helped her into treatment tells the newspaper, "Meth is pure evil. It will ruin your life." The newspaper reports Kentucky and Indiana were unprepared when the methamphetamine craze began its sweep through both states. Eleven other states updated their laws as early as 2001 to prevent addicts from buying enough commonly available cold and allergy medications to make meth. But the two states “failed to do likewise, allowing the spread of makeshift meth labs in garages, fields, hotel rooms and nearly anywhere.” Tomorrow's final installment will look at proposed solutions to the meth epidemic, how Kentucky and Indiana have struggled in this battle, but government help may be forthcoming. For the full part one of the series, click here. To view today’s part two click here. Forest Service issues new rules for managing national forests and grasslands The U.S. Forest Service issued sweeping new rules for 191 million acres of national forest and grasslands last week, “jettisoning some environmental protections that date to Ronald Reagan's administration and putting in place the biggest change in forest-use policies in nearly three decades,” Juliet Eilperin reported in The Washington Post. “The new rules give economic activity equal priority with preserving the ecological health of the forests in making management decisions and in potentially liberalizing caps on how much timber can be taken from a forest.” No longer will foresters have to prepare an environmental impact analysis with each forest's management plan, or actually count fish and wildlife to determine if there are “viable populations” of a species. “The changes will reduce the number of required scientific reports and ask federal officials to focus on a forest's overall health, rather than the fate of individual species, when evaluating how best to protect local plants and animals,” Eilperin writes. The new rules “also cut back on requirements for public participation in forest planning decisions,” Felicity Barringer reported in The New York Times. “Forest Service officials said the rules were intended to give local foresters more flexibility to respond to scientific advances and threats like intensifying wildfires and invasive species. They say the regulations will also speed up decisions, ending what some public and private foresters see as a legal and regulatory gridlock that has delayed forest plans for years because of litigation and requirements for time-consuming studies. The rules give the nation's regional forest managers and the Forest Service increased autonomy to decide whether to allow logging roads or cellphone towers, mining activity or new ski areas.” Critics said the changes “pared down protection for native animals and plants to the point of irrelevance” and “will promote logging and other commercial exploitation of the national forests and relegate the public to the sidelines,” Barringer and Eilperin reported, respectively. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., told Eilperin, “It's a radical overhaul of forest policy.” But Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, told her that the new rules “will get the Forest Service caring about the land and caring about the people, instead of caring about the process and serving the bureaucracy” and lead to “better, more informed and quicker decisions about timber sales.” Eilperin noted that “National forests are also an increasingly popular tourist destination for tens of millions of Americans. The number of visitors to national forests doubled over the past eight years, said Chris Wood, a Clinton administration Forest Service official who is now vice president of the conservation group Trout Unlimited,” which said in a statement, “The new planning regulations offer little in the way of planning and nothing in the way of regulation.” Barringer offered some background that could inform local reporting about the changes: “Forest supervisors are appointed by the Forest Service to manage national forests and report to regional managers. Some are more supportive of pro-timber policies, while others are more steeped in the environmental ethos. One of the ways the new rules give forest supervisors more power is that they are allowed to approve plans more quickly for any particular forest use - ranging from recreation to logging to grazing - and to adjust plans with less oversight. For instance, an existing requirement to keep all fish and wildlife species from becoming threatened or endangered is jettisoned. In its place is a requirement that managers consider the best available science to protect all natural resources when they are making decisions.” A gaping hole in the Bible belt buckle indicated in survey; many 'backsliding' A third of Kentucky’s adults don’t go to church, and almost a quarter more say they are not committed to their church, according to a new survey commissioned by the Kentucky Baptist Convention and first reported by Peter Smith, religion writer for The Courier-Journal, over the weekend. “Graham Teaford used to attend the Presbyterian church where his father was pastor. His wife, Uyen Phuong Nguyen, attended Catholic services after converting from Buddhism in her native Vietnam. But don't look for them in church on Sundays,” begins this morning's Associated Press rewrite. Teaford and his wife instead spend Sunday mornings at a coffee shop reading books or chatting with other regulars. Both told Smith they value universal religious ideals, such as helping the needy, but they are turned off by what they see as intolerance and infighting among churches. "I suppose you could say I identify as a Christian, just not practicing," Teaford said. The survey by the Barna Research Group found that about one in three Kentucky adults have not attended church within six months except for special occasions. “That's nearly 1 million people with no meaningful connection to any of the thousands of churches in a state in the heart of the Bible Belt,” Smith wrote. The survey says an additional 650,000 Kentucky adults, or 21 percent of the population, don't view themselves as committed to the church they attend. Budget crunch may derail North Carolina plans for statewide rail system Development in the form of depots, businesses and homes is cropping up along a planned train route from Asheville to Salisbury, just north of Charlotte, but North Carolina lawmakers’ plans for a statewide integrated rail system may be delayed by budget constraints reports The Associated Press. State Rep. Ray Rapp, co-chairman of the committee that would oversee the project, told AP, "In addition to passenger rail service, they all talk about the need to get trucks off the highways for safety and environmental purposes. We've got to have an improved freight service that customers want to use and provide access to that service." Rapp's committee heard from a Fort Bragg official on the need for freight service from the Fayetteville Army post to ports such as Wilmington and Morehead City. Rapp said it takes twice as long to ship goods from the post to Wilmington as it does to send it to Charleston, S.C. "The military is looking at those areas that provide them strategically with the best services available," he said. The route from Asheville to Salisbury alone would cost an estimated $136 million. More detailed studies are under way to determine the costs and needed improvements for the southeastern North Carolina route, according to the state Department of Transportation. Allan Paul, assistant director of operations for the transportation department's rail division, told AP that state transportation officials next month are expected to present state lawmakers with alternative ways to pay for the rail system. But the lawmakers also will have to deal with a $1.2 billion budget shortfall next year. Mountain music, instruments preserved at Birthplace of Country Music Museum One man’s family heritage of banjo making and many other efforts to preserve mountain music in all forms, from old sheet music to worn records, are among items displayed at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, Tenn., reports The Knoxville News Sentinel. The feature by Morgan Simmons details Jim Webb’s 30-mile journey from Blountville to the museum to see his father’s early 1900s fretless banjo on display. Webb tells Simmons, "I heard it was here. He made me one just like it, except mine has frets." For nearly six years, the museum “has been telling the story of how country music sprang out of the rich musical melting pot of East Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and the surrounding Southern Appalachians,” writes Simmons. Last year the museum and gift shop drew visitors from every state in the country. Many of the items on display are donated by local families. Bill Hartley, executive director of the museum, tells Simmons they're running out of room: "What you see on display is just the tip of the iceberg. "People are constantly bringing us old songbooks and records. We're glad to help preserve and tell their story." The museum is located in the Bristol Mall, but plans are to move the facility downtown to a building one block away from the famous warehouse where, in 1927, a talent scout for the Victor Talking Machine Co. named Ralph Peer first recorded Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, thus laying the groundwork for the commercial country music industry, writes Simmons. The firm was the forerunner to RCA Victor. The Rural Blog was not published Dec. 23-26, 2004. Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004 Special Report: Covering the meth epidemic in rural AmericaBy Joshua Scott Tucker, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues “How long will meth stay in my breast milk?” That’s what “Tina,” the main subject of The Deseret News’ six-part series on rural America’s methamphetamine abuse, asked a Utah Poison Control Hotline in a panicked call. “Twenty-four hours,” she was told. Her infant son subsisted on baby formula the next day. The series in the Salt Lake City newspaper offers another haunting vignette of meth use: “When I was using, the kids knew what to do if they came across a needle,” said Susan Martin, 32, who was just paroled from Utah State Prison in October and is the mother of three. “They knew what to do when Mommy was dope sick,” Susan continued. “They knew how long I needed to sleep. The kids knew what the paraphernalia was all about; the kids knew how to watch for the cops.” Such are the particulars of covering methamphetamine – a task that occupies an intriguing niche in contemporary journalism. Meth is a problem with both a genesis and fallout in rural areas. Meth first came into journalistic consciousness when biker gangs on the West coast began selling it in the early 1970’s. Easily made from common ingredients like lantern fuel, match books, and the decongestant Sudafed, meth spread easily across the country. Called names like hillbilly cocaine, crank, and crystal, meth appeals to a rural constituency because it’s cheap, easy to manufacture at home, and requires no special equipment or expertise. Now, according to a major series by The Oregonian, more than 1.3 million people in the United States use meth. Today’s edition of The Rural Blog focuses on the meth problem in rural areas, how journalists have covered it and how they might continue to follow it. Covered here will be meth’s effects on rural people and property, guidelines for instructing regular citizens on how to spot meth production, and an analysis of government response to what some consider the rural meth epidemic. This report was compiled by Josh Tucker, a graduate assistant for the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. Meth’s effects on people “Meth addicts interface with multiple public agencies at enormous public expense: criminal justice, human services, environmental health, child protection and emergency medicine," Carol Falkowski writes in the journal Spectrum. She goes on to detail the effects of methamphetamine use on the human body. After using meth, a person “may be in an altered state for eight to 12 hours. After the initial euphoric 'rush,' the behavioral effects include heightened concentration, increased alertness, high energy, wakefulness and loss of appetite.” Meth can also work as an aphrodisiac, as described in an Associated Press available here. “Who wouldn't want to use it? You lose weight and you have great sex,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Laymon said at a meeting of Tennessee's meth task force. But meth's aphrodisiac effects are short-lived. While meth may at first “makes you want sex all the time,” as Alabama obstetrician Mary Holley claims, meth users can lose the ability to have sex at all after only six months of use. And national drug czar John Walters notes the physical deterioration meth users often undergo: “Hair falls out, teeth fall out. That's not sexy.” Meth is a neurotoxin, a chemical that ultimately damages cognition and memory. Consequently, Falkowski cautions that meth use “places an individual at heightened risk of long-term, possibly irreversible behavioral, cognitive, and psychological problems over the course of a lifetime.” Falkowski paints an even more grotesque picture of the effects of meth addiction and its long-term effects on users. Meth addicts binge on larger and larger quantities of the drug as they become reliant on it. As addicts binge, they typically go extended periods of time-- often days on end-- without eating or sleeping. These binges result in a cycle of physical deterioration that occurs rapidly, much more rapidly than that associated with addiction to other drugs. Prolonged addiction, Falkowski says, usually results in methamphetamine psychosis, where victims “see things that aren't really there, including elusive 'shadow people'”and a psychological state where “meth addicts believe that everyone is 'out to get them,' even innocent strangers or inanimate objects.” Along with the long-term health effects of meth use, injuries associated with meth use and production add to its danger, the Charleston Daily Mail reports. “Methamphetamine producers risk not only legal troubles, but also the safety of themselves and their families,” George Gannon writes. He reports that meth users face an increased risk injury due to fire as well as exposure to hazardous fumes and chemicals. Meth’s effects on rural property Meth has a disproportionate effect on rural areas because of its effects on rural property. Meth labs, the makeshift facilities where the drug is produced, generate toxic waste products that can foul surrounding land and render property uninhabitable, the Ashtabula Star Beacon reports. “These labs are polluting the communities where they crop up” and damage homes “making them un-sellable,” Shelley Terry writes. Property owners in many states are trying to tackle the problem by acting proactively and developing ways to repair the effects of meth production in houses. Ellis Eskew of Chattanooga’s WDEF-TV reports Tennessee police are advising landlords in the state to require tenants to sign agreements saying that the tenant will no use or produce meth while staying on the property and be responsible for the damages if they violate the agreement. Police in Chattanooga also hold frequent meth education seminars. Iowa’s KWQC reports that state has issued state guidelines for the cleanup of meth damaged property that “include airing out the property, replacing carpet, cleaning plumbing and ventilation systems and contacting law enforcement.” The State Journal of West Virginia reports on John Simon, owner of Astech Corp., a Charleston-based indoor environmental remediation company. He claims to be one of the few West Virginians certified to remediate meth damage in homes. Remediation, the article claims, “can be as simple as ripping up carpet and removing old drapes, or as elaborate as replacing drywall and flooring.” Guidelines for spotting meth production The Record of Leitchfield, Ky., published a meth series that included advice on how to both spot meth users and meth labs. Users, Stephanie Hornback writes, are characterized by paranoia, extreme weight loss, teeth grinding or loss, open sores on their faces and arms, incessant talking, irritability or violent behavior, repetitious behaviors such as picking at skin, false sense of confidence, and severe depression. Her list of signs of meth labs is much longer. Laura Skillman of the University of Kentucky reports a similar list in an article for local newspapers, detailing Kentucky’s “Walk Your Land” program. The program encourages rural landowners to regularly check their land for meth production they may not be aware of. “The components are things that we use in everyday life — gallon fruit jars, aquarium tubing, plastic spoons, plastic bowls, glassware,” Skillman quotes Cheyenne Albro, director of the Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force. “Because they often overlooked as being a lab when someone sees them in the woods or locates them, they don’t realize the dangers associated with them. They think it’s just a bag of trash.” Albro also cautioned people to not handle suspected materials from suspected meth labs, but rather contact the proper authorities. Government response to meth Official response to the meth epidemic has taken many forms. In some states, as reported by Oregon’s Springfield News, a new law requires pharmacies to place pseudoephedrine-based cold tablets behind the counter and to require photo identification to buy them. Pseudoephedrine is a necessary ingredient in meth production. This new law was patterned after a similar initiative from Oklahoma. Oklahoma reported a 60 percent drop in meth lab seizures in the first three months after the law was enacted. The Deseret News poses the question “Does Utah need a meth czar?” in an editorial by Dennis Romboy and Lucinda Dillon Kinkead. Here the authors make the case that meth use is so pervasive in Utah and has so many social and policy ramifications that a state figurehead may be necessary. But elsewhere, some officials believe that combating meth is more dependent on local action than state action – an important point for rural journalists to ponder. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration claims that approximately 80 percent of meth in America is produced outside the country. But Cumberland County ( Tenn.) Sheriff Butch Burgess, in an article in the Crossville Chronicle, questioned how relevant the federal government may be to the meth problem. “Meth is so different from everything else, it's hard to bring in the DEA or TBI,” the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Burgess said. “It has to be solved from the community level.” He added, “A lot of this stuff can be done on a community level without having to ask the state for any more dollars." Links to coverage Here are some examples to consider when covering meth: The (Louisville) Courier-Journal series on meth in Kentucky and Indiana: For day one, click here. For day two, click here. For an interactive display of the drug's eastward march through the state, click here. The Cherokee County ( Ala.) Herald reported on the dangers of meth. Louisville’s WLKY reported that an eighty-eight year old woman fought off two would-be robbers on the run from meth charges by brandishing her cane. The Albert Lea Tribune featured a series on meth’s effects on Minnesota, ending in this editorial. The Navajo Hopi Observer reported in the documentary ‘G’ detailing meth abuse in Native American communities. The East Texas Review reported that Texas Gov. Rick Perry is sending a message to meth producers. Savannah’s WSAV reported that Savannah SWAT team members have begun using special chemical suits complete with air packs and gas masks to raid suspected meth labs. WTWO reported that a Terre Haute, Ind., day care operator and an alleged accomplice were arrested for dealing meth. And Samantha Reynolds of Eastern Kentucky’s Paintsville Herald added to her coverage with a poem, titled “Ms. Crystal Meth.” It concluded: Now that you’ve met me What will you do? Will you try me or not? It’s all up to you. I can show you more misery Than words can tell. Come, take my hand. Let me lead you to Hell. Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2004 Agricultural trade surplus will vanish next year, Agricuture Department says The U.S. trade surplus in agriculture, which has lasted almost 50 years and has been the key to mitigating the nation's huge overall trade deficit, will disappear next year, according to a forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Manufacturing News reports. “Imports of agricultural products are forecast to increase from $52.7 billion in 2004 to $56 billion next year, equaling exports,” MN reported. That would mark the first time sicne the 1950s that agricultural imports have equaled exports. The report continued, “Imports of agricultural products have increased from $39 billion in 2001 to $46 billion in 2003 and to $52.7 billion in 2004. Exports are expected to decrease from $62.3 billion in 2004 to $56 billion next year due to lower prices for wheat, corn, soybeans and cotton. For a copy of the USDA report, click here. Oxford American is revived again, thanks to Central Arkansas University The Oxford American, which bills itself as “The Southern Magazine of Good Writing,” is back in business after another hiatus that apparently came close to killing it off for good. This time, the savior is Central Arkansas University, with which the 12-year-old magazine says it has “a powerful long-term affiliation.” While the American does not have an explicitly rural mission or audience, the character of the South is closely tied to rurality, and the Winter 2005 issue of the magazine bespeaks it. The cover photo, of a young girl holding a Hereford at the Tri-County Fair in Petersburg, W.Va., is part of a photo essay by Mary Noble Ours. There’s a touching item on an elephant sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn.; a comic written by Kristin Gore, daughter of the vice president; and a story about rural communities in Arkansas and Mississippi trying to connect themselves with a new bridge over the Mississippi River as part of an extended Interstate 69. The magazine cites its own favorites, such as “a stunning essay by the Grand Master of Southern Letters, Barry Hannah, on a vision he had of Jesus;” a department called “Writing on Writing,” including a comic essay by Charles Portis, whom author Donna Tartt calls “the greatest living, unsung American writer;” and “the return of favorite OA columnists: Roy Blount, Jr. (humor), Hal Crowther (books), and John T. Edge (food).” The editors say Edge will guest-edit an upcoming issue on Southern food. It all sounds very tasty already. –Al Cross, interim director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues Kentucky Citizens for Open Government hopes to unite media, public in cause Kentucky is the location of the newest press-and-public coalition formed to fight for openness in government at the state and local level. The group, Kentucky Citizens for Open Government, received notice last week that it had received a $10,000 check from the National Freedom of Information Coalition, which funds such state groups with money from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Future funding is expected from media and citizen groups, foundations, and membership dues. Tennessee soldier says he, not embedded reporter, drafted question for Rumsfeld The Tennessee National Guardsman who started the clamor for ousting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, with a tough question on Dec. 8 about the lack of vehicle armor, has told Time magazine the question originated with him, not a reporter. In the latest issue of Time, Specialist Thomas Jerry Wilson of the 278th Regimental Combat Team says embedded reporter Edward Lee Pitts of the Chattanooga Times Free Press urged him to come up with some “intelligent questions'” for Rumsfeld, who was not taking questions from reporters during a visit to Iraq-bound troops in Kuwait. In his first public account of the controversy, Wilson told Time that when he ran the armor question past Pitts, the reporter '”suggested a less brash way of asking the question. I told him no, that I wanted to make my point very clear.” The Time report continues, “As for Rumsfeld's brusque response -- that even a fully armored vehicle ‘can be blown up’ -- Wilson says, ‘Personally, I didn't like that answer.’” But he added, “I hope I didn't do any damage to Secretary Rumsfeld.” Monday, Dec. 20, 2004 Some rural counties on EPA list for exceeding limit on fine particulates A few rural aeas, such as part of the Ohio River valley, are among areas exceeding the new federal standard for fine soot and other tiny particulates, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday. All or part of 224 counties, with 95 million people, are included in the desuignation; all but three states involved (California, Colorado and Montana) are east of the Mississippi River. The particluates, about 1/30 the width of an average human hair, can lodge in the lungs and cause respiratory illness and premature death. Here is a New York Times story and a Washington Post story on the issue. The designations could have an impact beyond the counties on the list; a state could lose federal highway dollars if it does not act to clean up the pollution. Click here for a map of the designated counties. The largest groups of counties in noncompliance with the new standard are in the Los Angeles basin and interior central California; the urban corridor from New York City to Washington; the Ohio River valley; Atlanta and its greater metro area; St. Louis; Chicago, and Detroit. States with counties in violation are Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Rural needs: Niche foods, entrepreneurs, skills and scenic leverage, experts say To grow their economies, rural communities must take advantage of all opportunities, including niche agriculture and high-skilled nonfarm industries, says “Beyond Cows and Corn,” a commentary in a recent edition of Main Street Economist, a publication of The Center for the Study of Rural America, part of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. While larger farms that produce commodities can limit costs, other producers will take a value-oriented approach, targeting specific markets “willing to pay a premium for high-quality farm goods,” economists Jason Henderson and Stephan Weiler write. That could lead to “productive rural-urban linkages, as farmers produce ultra-fresh grain, produce and meat products for the specific demands of a nearby urban populace.” Rural nonfarm economic sectors must also continue to evolve as well, the experts say, because rural areas are becoming increasingly reliant on high-skilled jobs. Entrepreneurship and small business growth are key to the success of rural economies. “Enhancing labor-force skills and expanding the technological capabilities of rural firms are essential in maintaining the innovative momentum that distinguishes successful businesses.” Also, rural communities must “leverage their scenic settings to attract and retain high-quality individuals,” and those without scenic advantages can package “varying natural, social, and cultural amenities across broader regional partnerships,” the economists write, concluding: “Rural communities are beginning to think regionally to seize the opportunities of globalization and exploit high-value niche markets in agriculture, manufacturing and services. These fresh and exciting directions for rural America will inevitably dislodge the myth of its commodity agricultural base, further helping to propel rural sconomies toward their potential.” The article notes that service jobs now account for almost half of rural employment, and that as rural areas grow economically, they become more urbanized. As a result, more than 500 rural counties have been added to metropolitan areas since 1970. In 2000, the Census Bureau gave 674 counties the new designation “micropolitan,” signaling the growth and economic significance of such small cities and large towns. Strip miners, regulators say they'll push reforestation; environmentalists skeptical The U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and coal-industry representatives from West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia signed an agreement last week vowing to promote tree planting at former mine sites. But the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative agreement is non-binding, as the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy pointed out in refusing to sign it. Other groups are wary. Julia Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch said the initiative could be nothing more than a way to justify mountaintop removal mining, which she wants to see banned. For the Associated Press story via WYMT-TV in Hazard, Ky,, click here. New York City's education needs could lead to more help for state's rural schools A court order to improve state school funding in New York City has led to a proposal that would also help the Empire State's poor, rural school districts. The plan offers "a statewide solution to school finance," reports Paul Ertelt, Capitol Bureau reporter for the The (Oneonta) Daily Star. "Needy rural schools would actually see a bigger per-pupil increase in state aid under the plan" than those in the Big Apple, Ertelt reports. The city's average per-pupil aid "would go from $5,492 to $6,198, an increase of $706. Average aid for high-need rural schools would go from $8,213 to $8,975, an increase of $762." Ertet writes, "Last month, a court-appointed panel of special masters recommended that aid to city schools be increased by $1.4 billion next year and by $5.6 billion in four years. The panel also recommended that the state provide billions of dollars more for renovation and building projects at city schools. The panel said the money should come from state and city sources, but did not dictate how much each should pay. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the state should pick up the entire cost of the aid increase. State Supreme Court Justice Leland DeGrasse is expected to issue a court order based on the panel’s recommendations next month." A local newspaper goes beyond its borders to put issues in regional context Reporter Allison McCowan of The Sentinel-Echo in London, Ky., had a couple of stories Friday that did something the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues was created to encourage and help local news outlets to do -- report on broader issues that have impact on local readers, listeners and viewers. McCowan reported on defense attorneys' challenges to arrests made with the help of a federally funded anti-drug program, reporting officials' view that the issue was less likely to be raised in the newspaper's home Laurel County because its detectives had been sworn as county officers. (The county's other paper, the London-Laurel News Journal, was also on the regional drug beat, reporting on marijuana growth in the Daniel Boone National Forest and a federal grant being issued to combat it.) McCowan picked up on the annual Kids Count survey about poverty's effects on children, reporting that Laurel County remained about on a par with the rest of Kentucky, and the county's percentage of children in poverty declined just 1 percentage point since 1990, to 29 percent in 2004. While the rate of live births to mothers who had not graduated high school went down 7 points, those to unwed mothers went up 7 points. McCowan described other indicative data, on smoking, prenatal care and so on. While the story included no local examples of children in poverty, which could have been vivid illustrations, it reminded readers of the phenomenon and its socioeconomic effects. In an adjoining county, the McCreary County Record, also published by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., did a similar story. Off-track betting in mid-Appalachia: Another addiction to keep money at home? "Off-track betting is coming to another eastern Kentucky town and it's bringing mixed feelings," WYMT-TV reports from Pikeville, where the only bowling alley is being replaced by an OTB parlor. "Some say it is a smart move for Pike County and will bring more money and tourism to the area," the station reports, "but some residents say Eastern Kentucky has enough addictions to deal with without adding another temptation. "Instead of developing a gambling mentality I think we ought to try to learn to create wealth by developing jobs and giving people meaningful things to do," minister Paul Badgett said. But City Manager Donovan Blackburn says more than half the residents of Pike County, Kentucky's easternmost, leave it to go to other gambling facilities, or gamble online -- so the facility will keep part of that money at home. Officials say they hope to open the city-approved facility sometime in January. Friday, Dec. 17, 2004 Rural radio station helps inmates, families exchange holiday greetings nationwide A southeastern Kentucky radio station popular among big-city inmates in isolated prisons in central Appalachia plans to take its annual Christmas program nationwide this year. Roger Alford, Pikeville-based reporter for The Associated Press, writes that Whitesburg's WMMT-FM will host a call-in show Monday for people to send holiday greetings to inmates from Virginia to California. Prisoners also can call in for the program to send greetings home. The program is to run from 7 to 10 p.m. Nick Szuberla, a WMMT on-air personality who helped produce the call-in show tells Alford the project (part of the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund) is a public service to inmates, being held in prisons far from home, who may not receive a holiday visit from relatives. "The benefit to us is not monetary," Szuberla said. "This is not a commercially profitable venture. Part of the mission of the radio station is to give a voice to people who may not have a way to get their message heard." More than 40 radio stations nationwide are to simulcast the call-in program. AP reports that Lorenzo McClean, an inmate at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap, Va., said inmates appreciate the radio station's initiative. "Thank you for looking at us as human beings," McClean said. Private guard at D.C.-area home sites charged with arson; no eco-terrorism Federal authorities say a 21-year-old security guard who worked at a new, upscale subdivision in southern Maryland was arrested yesterday and charged in the worst case of residential arson in the state's history. Aaron L. Speed of Waldorf, Md., was arrested after making self-incriminating statements during a polygraph test, law-enforcement sources told The Washington Post. "After initially considering eco-terrorism and racism as possible motives for the arsons, investigators moved away from those theories this week. They declined to say yesterday what might have prompted the arsons," Eric Rich and Sari Horwitz wrote. Their sources described Speed "as a young man in a downward emotional spiral after a family tragedy last spring." The Dec. 6 blazes at the Hunters Brooke subdivision in Indian Head caused about $10 million in damage, destroying 10 houses and damaging 16 others, priced between $400,000 and $500,000. Speed had been an employee of a North Carolina security company hired to guard the development. The 119-acre development provoked concerted opposition from local groups and the Sierra Club, which wrote in a 2000 report, "The project will destroy a forest adjacent to state-preserved wildlands and severely degrade one of Maryland's largest magnolia bogs." Charles County Administrator Eugene T. Lauer told The New York Times, "The arrest has helped allay concerns that ecoterrorists had set the fires." UNC-Chapel Hill abolishes its highest award for women over racism concerns The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has abolished the school's highest award for women after determining that it commemorated a woman who supported white supremacy. The Bell Award, set up a decade ago, honored Cornelia Phillips Spencer, best known in North Carolina as the woman who tolled the South Building bell to signal the reopening of the university in 1875 after a political shutdown. Yonnie Chapman, who is researching black freedom and the university, told The News & Observer that Spencer played a key role in closing the university in 1871, ending a Reconstruction effort to open it to black students. “Her tolling of the bell, often seen as a symbol of her love for the university, could also be interpreted as her celebration of ‘the white supremacist’ Democrats' return to power.” he said. The university says it doesn't have a plan to establish another award for women at this time. For an Associated Press rewrite, click here. For the N&O home page, click here. National Guard to get billions in new equipment; including armor for all vehicles One week after a Tennessee National Guard scout on his way to Iraq expressed concerns to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about lack of armor protection on vehicles, the Pentagon has announced the National Guard needs $20 billion in vehicles, radios and other equipment over the next three years. The Associated Press reports the money would be to perform all the overseas and homeland security missions the National Guard is being assigned, including armoring every vehicle entering Iraq: “Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum told reporters at the Pentagon that Guard units leaving Iraq are leaving much of their equipment behind for incoming units to use. That means the outgoing units have little of their gear when they get home.” Blum said the Army Guard may seek up to $7 billion in equipment in an upcoming emergency spending measure that will pay for U.S. military operations overseas. He insisted, however, that Iraq-bound troops are receiving equipment as good as that used the regular Army. He said Spec. Thomas Wilson's question was appropriate, his Tennessee unit would not enter Iraq without every vehicle having some kind of armor, and the unit's commander reported to Blum personally that the armoring was completed. Kentucky public defenders seek more funds; caseloads threaten work for indigent Kentucky public defenders yesterday requested more money fearing large caseloads are threatening quality legal help for poor people accused of crimes and increasing stress for attorneys who represent them, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. Southern Kentucky Bureau Chief Bill Estep writes attorneys in the Department of Public Advocacy have seen their caseloads jump 12 percent, to an average of 489 cases per public defender, in the most recent fiscal year. Ernie Lewis, head of the department told Estep that is almost twice the recommended level. The newspaper reports DPA attorneys met in Somerset yesterday to discuss the problem. The session, called "Justice Jeopardized," was the first of several meetings planned around the state on the issue but the only one scheduled before the 2005 legislative session. Lewis told Estep after the meeting, "We're afraid that because of our caseloads, an innocent man is going to be convicted." W. Va. airport seeks funds from Kentucky and Ohio to boost ‘tri-state’ service The Tri-State Airport Authority is seeking funds from Ohio and Kentucky to support better service at the airport near Huntington, W.Va., after the Federal Aviation Administration turned down a proposal to build an airport between Huntington and Charleston, reports the Huntington Herald-Dispatch. Scott Wartman writes that local governments, mainly in West Virginia, have pledged donations that total $130,000 this fiscal year to the airport authority for marketing and improving air service. Its only out-of-state check was $5,000 from Ashland, Ky. Bill Byrd, assistant airport director of finance and administration, tells Wartman that without help from surrounding areas, the airport is limited by its current budget. For decades the airport has been viewed as a major economic development hub for the tri-state area. A. Michael Perry, an airport authority board member, told Wartman the airport authority also wants political support from surrounding states. Over three years the airport has been rejected for federal grants to improve air service. “The Tri-State Airport needs more of a presence in Washington, D.C. to swing grants in its favor. As we are dealing with Washington, we have to have Congressional support of both Kentucky and Ohio.” Young TV journalist killed in W. Va. auto crash; graduated Marshall in May |