Tuesday,
Feb. 28, 2006
Supreme Court to
hear Ohio tax-incentive case; money helps rural areas
An appeal of a ruling that struck down some economic-development
incentives in Ohio will go before the U.S. Supreme Court
tomorrow.
"Critics of tax incentives say states are needlessly
sacrificing revenues to placate businesses that aren't
really influenced by the offers. States and companies
that have received tax breaks say the programs help
generate jobs and keep companies operating in this country.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments over two issues
in the case -- whether the plaintiffs had the right
to sue in federal court and whether such tax breaks
violate portions of the U.S. Constitution that forbid
erecting trade barriers between states," writes
Robert Schoenberger of The Courier-Journal.
In its defense, Ohio claimed that although incentives
offer preferential treatment for companies that build
or expand in specific locations, they don't hurt companies
that build or expand elsewhere. In its appeal to the
Supreme Court, the state's lawyers wrote that the Constitution
"prohibits barriers, not welcome mats," reports
the Louisville newspaper. (Read
more)
Incentives have been important in attracting jobs to
rural areas. To help rural journalists cover this and
other issues, the Institute for Rural Journalism
and Community Issues will present a workshop,
“Covering and Guiding Rural Economic Development,”
in Murray, Ky. on April 7. (Click
here for details)
Governors worried about National
Guard funding, prescriptions for seniors
All 50 governors signed a letter opposing what they
view as cuts in National Guard funding in Bush's fiscal
2007 budget as well as fears that the government is
slow to replace equipment in Iraq.
The Bush administration has since committed to funding
the Guard at the fully authorized level, and to replacing
and upgrading equipment sent to Iraq, writes Dan Balz,
chief political writer for The Washington Post.
That commitment received mixed reaction from governors
who met with Bush on Monday. Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne,
Republican co-chairman of a National Guard committee
of the National Governors Association,
said, "I appreciated the president saying he's
committed to the full strength, but the money is not
in there. They must find the money."
Under the administration's plan, there will be a cut
in the number of National Guard units involved in heavy
combat and an increase in units devoted to engineering
and policing, Balz writes. Officials said such changes
would reduce costs to reequip Guard units. Arizona Gov.
Janet Napolitano (D), the NGA vice chair, said, "It's
something that governors are going to be paying very,
very, very close attention to, to make sure that those
oral representations are adhered to."
Governors have started speaking about more the National
Guard since its units were heavily deployed in Iraq.
A disproportionate number of National Guard enlistments
come from rural areas. Those deployments have caused
stateside unit numbers to shrink, which governors say
hurts their ability to handle domestic problems, notes
Balz. (Read
more)
Senior drugs and rural druggists:
During the meeting with Bush, several governors brought
up concerns about the federal government's new prescription
drug program for seniors that started in January. Medicare,
the federal health insurance program for the elderly,
began paying for prescriptions that previously had been
paid by Medicaid, the state-federal program that services
the poor and disabled.
"North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley (D) said he is
concerned about the effect the new drug benefit will
have on rural pharmacies, which might get reimbursed
at a lower rate by the federal government than they
did when states were paying part of low-income seniors'
drug costs through Medicaid. Easley said he would like
to see the federal government develop a tiered reimbursement
system that takes into account the increased cost of
delivering drugs in rural areas that often are still
served by mom-and-pop operations rather than large chains,"
write Kathleen Hunter and Mark K. Matthews of Stateline.org.
(Read
more)
Maverick biologist
banks on genetic material for new sources of ethanol
J. Craig Venter, the maverick biologist who mapped
the human genome, returned from a three-year yacht trip
with an idea about using genes from the sea to turn
switch grass and cornstalks into ethanol.
Since forming Synthetic Genomics Inc.,
Venter has called upon Aristides Patrinos, who directed
the U.S. Energy Department's biological and environmental
research and was a force behind President Bush's mention
of switch grass in the State of the Union address. Venter
has an extensive collection of genetic material from
his sea journey, which is the raw material for his alternative
fuel project, reports Michael S. Rosenwald of The
Washington Post.
"In the case of energy, the problems are well
known. Oil prices have skyrocketed. There are national
security concerns over relying so heavily on foreign
oil sources. Energy companies are pursuing any number
of alternatives, including increasing production of
ethanol. The problem with current production methods
is that they rely on using corn kernels, which are converted
into sugar, fermented to produce alcohol and then distilled
into ethanol. Meeting the country's energy needs using
that method could eventually strain the food supply,
particularly for animals that feed off corn," writes
Rosenwald.
Ethanol can be produced by using plant matter such
as switch grass, cornstalks or corn husks and breaking
it down into cellulose using a combination of enzymes.
There are no commercial-scale facilities available yet,
but one in Spain could open this fall. "This will
not happen tomorrow. Venter's scientists will need at
least several years to sift through the millions of
organisms he collected on his around-the-world yacht
trip, which ended last month. The hope is that something
in that menagerie will provide the key to more efficient
energy," writes Rosenwald. (Read
more)
Does logging after fires harm
national forests? Oregon study says 'yes'
If fire ravages a national forest, the Bush administration
supports loggers taking the marketable trees before
the replanting of a healthy forest. One university's
study poses some concerns about such logging.
An Oregon State University study says
logging burned forests harms recovery. "What the
short study did not say -- but what many critics of
the Bush administration are reading into it -- is that
the White House has ignored science to please the timber
industry. The study is consistent with research findings
from around the world that have documented how salvage
logging can strip burned forests of the biological diversity
that fire and natural recovery help protect," reports
Blaine Harden of The Washington Post.
The study, "Post-Wildfire Logging Hinders Regeneration
and Increases Fire Risk," focused on a section
of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest damaged
during a 2002 fire that damaged a half-million acres.
It suggests that seedling regeneration was reduced by
71 percent because of post-fire logging, reports Paul
Fattig of the Medford [Ore.] Mail
Tribune. (Read
more)
A bill pending in Congress would ease procedures for
post-fire logging in federal forests, which is becoming
more important to the bottom line of timber companies.
"It generates about 40 percent of timber volume
on the nation's public lands, according to Forest Service
data compiled by the World Wildlife Fund, and accounts
for nearly half the logging on public land in Oregon.,"
writes Harden. (Read
more)
Tennessee stops non-citizen
driver cards; many applicants bring little proof
Tennessee has suspended a program that allowed immigrants
to legally drive, less than two years after it started
as a possible model for other states.
The "driving certificate" program could eventually
be done away with, because of the large number of undocumented
immigrants applying and a staff of state workers who
often questioned the legitimacy of identities, writes
Trent Seibert of The Tennessean. Less
than a month ago, federal agents revealed a bribery
scheme where hundreds of people were illegally directed
to a driving school, which then paid off safety workers
for the "students" to obtain fraudulent cards.
(Read
more)
"Of the 51,000 people who signed up for the one-year
certificates, 90 percent might not pass the newer, tougher
standards that will be in place for the certificates
starting March 6," writes Seibert. Prior to that,
a blue-ribbon panel will study the concept and ways
to improve it.
Vermont
anti-meth bill would place cold medicines under lock
and key
Law enforcement and public health officials in Vermont
hope to prevent a methamphetamine epidemic by restricting
access to cold medicines used in the manufacturing of
the drug.
The state House is expected to vote this week on a
bill that would require pharmacies and other retailers
to restrict sales of several common cold medicines.
There would be 24-hour and 30-day limits on the amounts
of the specific ingredients that can be sold to individuals,
reports Nancy Remsen of the Burlington Free
Press. (Read
more)
The Vermont bill is similar to laws passed in several
states last year. In addition to the 24-hour and 30-day
limits, Vermont's bill proposes having a log that customers
would have to sign and requiring them to present identification.
If signed into law, the new measures would take effect
Sept. 1, notes Remsen.
West Virginia governor calls
for rescue chambers in state's coal mines
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin is pushing for rescue
chambers in all of his state's 315 underground mines
with enough air, food and water for at least 24 hours.
The proposal would amend emergency rules previously
filed as part of the state's new mine-safety law. Sixteen
miners have died in West Virginia accidents this year.
In Canada, airtight chambers helped 72 people survive
a underground fire in a potash mine last month, but
critics argue that such chambers might fail in coal
mines, reports The Associated Press.
Coal mines possess a long-lasting supply of fuel and
there is the threat of secondary explosions.
Manchin's proposal would need approval from the West
Virginia Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training,
and all safety equipment must be OK'ed by the federal
Mine Safety and Health Administration. Manchin hopes
to form a six-member Mine Safety Technology Task Force
with labor and management representatives to examine
whether his proposal is feasible, reports AP. (Read
more)
The State Journal in Charleston has
a comprehensive story on the state's coal deaths this
year and the subsequent industry and government efforts
to improve safety. (Read
more)
Building bridges
to Indiana would delay 80 road projects in Kentucky
A plan to build two bridges between Louisville and
Indiana could delay 80 road projects in Kentucky, causing
a rift between the state's largest urban area and its
country cousins.
"The project would gobble up $789 million in federal
highway dollars for Kentucky over the next six years
in the new state highway construction plan recently
proposed by Gov. Ernie Fletcher. That's up from $168
million for the bridges in the previous road plan released
two years ago. It amounts to 10 percent of the $7.8
billion total spending within the plan on the state's
27,000-mile highway system," writes Tom Loftus
of The Courier-Journal.
Since the bridges would be federally funded, that means
taking away money planned for the 80 projects. Those
projects would now be in competition for a limited amount
of state funds, reports the Louisville newspaper. Lawmakers
question why many projects in their districts are in
doubt.
Kentucky Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert told
lawmakers last week that the federal funds have to be
spent to meet agreements with Indiana and the Federal
Highway Administration that want the bridges
finished by about 2020. However, many Kentucky counties
were counting on the 80 road projects to improve safety
and ease traffic congestion, notes Loftus. (Read
more)
For examples of a local paper covering officials' efforts
to get a local project moved up on the state schedule,
click
here and here
for stories by Mike Wynn in The Winchester Sun.
Poynter starts new online ethics
column; looks at reporting on MySpace.com
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies
has started Everyday Ethics, a new online column by
Ethics Group Leader Kelly
McBride and her colleagues. "The column includes
reports on ethical decision-making in newsrooms big
and small, and will provide shorter, more frequently
updated posts than we offered with Ethics Journal,"
says Poynter's Bill Mitchell.
McBride's first column is on the handling of stories
about MySpace.com, the Web site for
children that can become a magnet for sexual predators.
She salutes our friend Steve Israel of the Times
Herald-Record of Middletown, N.Y., for "a
more thoughtful approach" than some others. Israel
consulted with McBride before writing his story, "What
you must know about MySpace.com." To read it, click
here.
To read McBride's column, click
here. You can sign up to receive an e-mail whenever
the column is updating by clicking
here.
George Washington media professor
gets dean spot at UNC-Chapel Hill
Jean Folkerts, a media professor at George Washington
University, will be the next dean of the University
of North Carolina's School of Journalism and
Mass Communication.
UNC Chancellor James Moeser said Folkerts "has
demonstrated a broad depth of knowledge about the rapidly
changing field of journalism and mass communications,"
especially electronic media, reports The Herald-Sun
(Durham, N.C.). On July 1, she will replace Interim
Dean Tom Bowers, who took over last July when Richard
Cole returned to the faculty after 26 years as dean.
Folkerts joined George Washington's Media and Public
Affairs program in 1990. She previously worked as a
general assignment reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal;
editor of Perspective, a magazine published
by The Menninger Foundation, a psychiatric
research and hospital institute; and assistant press
secretary to the governor of Kansas, notes The Herald-Sun.
(Read
more)
Newspapers, communities to honor
open government with Sunshine Week
From March 12 through 18, newspapers and their communities
will celebrate Sunshine Week, which is dedicated to
observing the public's right of access to government
information.
National Newspaper Association President
Jerry Reppert, a member of the national steering committee
leading the Sunshine events, said open government is
more important in 2006 than ever. "The public is
expressing more concern about open government than in
recent years," Reppert said. "Perhaps the
shock of 9/11 has worn off a little and we are back
to the hard business of remembering that in a democratic
society, the public still needs to hold the reins, even
if we have to be more careful in how we manage some
types of information," reports Tonda Rush, NNA
public policy director. (Read
more)
During Sunshine Week, daily and weekly newspapers,
magazines, online sites and broadcasters will provide
an assortment of stories on the importance of open government.
More information is available at the NNA Web
site and the Sunshine Week Web
site.
Monday, Feb.
27, 2006
Rising economy
and land values signal a brighter 2006 for rural America
The Center for the Study of Rural America's
annual report predicts a good year for small communities.
"A slowing national housing market may take some
of the wind from the sails of the rural land boom, but
most analysts expect land values to keep rising, though
perhaps at a slower pace. A quick glance at the economy,
therefore, suggests another good year for rural America
in 2006. Still, there are some significant clouds on
the horizon that bear watching," according to the
center.
The report highlights some trends worth watching this
year including: energy prices that may lead to opportunities
for alternative fuel industries in rural areas; a budget
climate that makes partnering and regional approaches
important; and sprawl, which is an issue for rural and
urban areas.
The 16-page report also highlights several innovative
approaches being taken in the rural business world.
One innovation included the City of Columbia, Mo., and
nearby rural communities partnering up for the Mid-Missouri
Technology Business Incubator. (Read
more)
Rural broadband gap narrowing,
but many areas still left out, Pew says
Rural Americans are still much less likely to have
high-speed Internet connections than people living in
other parts of the country, but the gap is narrowing,
reports the Pew Internet & American Life
Project.
At the end of 2005, 24 percent of adults in rural areas
had high-speed connections, compared to 39 percent in
urban and suburban areas. "In 2003, only 9 percent
of rural residents had home broadband service. Their
city counterparts were more than twice as likely to
have service - 21 percent for urban dwellers and 23
percent for suburban dwellers," notes the Dallas
Morning News.
But, because broadband providers are
reluctant to extend the service to sparsely populated
areas, and some state legislatures have prohibited local
governments from offering the service, "High-speed
Internet service is still just a dream for many Americans
who live in rural areas and find themselves beyond the
reach of DSL or cable broadband lines," Terry Maxon
writes.
"Rural homes often are too far from telephone
company offices to get DSL service, and usually aren’t
served by cable companies. That leaves them with few
options for high-speed service. One possibility is for
Internet service from satellite providers, but at a
substantial cost. Electric utilities have investigated
'broadband over power line' (BPL) service that would
provide Internet service delivered through electrical
outlets. But its use has been hampered by technological
issues, particularly BPL’s potential interference
with radio signals by amateur radio operators and others.
Wireless companies have begun offering Internet service
in some rural communities, but its spread is still limited.
The speed of a DSL line falls steadily as it goes out
from a switching office [so] a lot of rural homes must
rely on dial-up service, which is significantly slower
than broadband service. . . . The higher percentage
with dial-up service -- 29 percent for rural Americans
as opposed to 21 percent for others -- means that a
rural resident is less likely to use the Internet as
intensely than his city counterparts."
(Read
more)
“Rural broadband users are no different than
home high-speed users elsewhere; they go online more
often and do more online activities than dial-up users,”
John B. Horrigan, associate director of the Pew Internet
Project and principal author of the report, said in
a release. All-speed Internet use is at 62 percent in
rural areas and 70 percent elsewhere. "This 8 percentage
point gap is about half the rural-non-rural gap at the
end of 2003," Pew says.
There are differences in how the Internet is used.
"Rural Internet users are more likely to take classes
for credit online, download screensavers, and download
video games," Pew says. (Read
the release)
Coal executive's memo makes
miners wonder if production trumps safety
The president of America's fourth largest
coal company, and the largest in Central Appalachia,
told mine superintendents recently that they should
ignore any orders from middle managers "to
do anything other than run coal . . . We seem not to
understand that the coal pays the bills.”
The memo from Massey Energy Co. CEO
and President Don Blankenship, leaked to the Appalachian
News-Express of Pikeville, Ky., "is creating
a stir in the coal mining community," writes Rachel
Stanley, a reporter for the the thrice-weekly newspaper.
"Some miners say they believe the memo illustrates
a common complaint - that the industry focuses too much
on profit."
The memo, dated Oct. 19, told underground mine superintendents,“If
any of you have been asked by your group presidents,
your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything
other than run coal (i.e. - build overcasts, do construction
jobs, or whatever) you need to ignore them and run coal."
Overcasts ensure proper air flow, so retired miner Irvin
Smith of McCarr told Stanley that line bothered him.
“Safety should come first, before the first lump
of coal,” he said. “Anybody that's worked
underground knows that you have overcasts built to have
the proper air. That's a very serious safety issue.”
"Company officials say they addressed the miners'
concerns with a follow-up memo, sent a week later,"
Stanley reports. "The second memo was also sent
from Don Blankenship and addressed to all deep mine
superintendents, and begins with a statement that safety
is the company's first responsibility." The memo
says, "If you have construction jobs at your mine
that need to be done to keep it safe or productive,
make every effort to do those jobs without taking members
and equipment from the coal producing sections that
pay the bills.” (Read
more)
Stanley notes, "It is the second time this month
that a Massey document has gotten a negative response
from coal miners. In early February, a document distributed
to the state Mining Board by Sidney Coal Co.
President Charlie Bearse was made public. Sidney
is a subsidiary of publicly traded Massey. Coal miners
were outraged by the text of the document, a portion
of which stated, 'It is common knowledge that the work
ethic of the Eastern Kentucky worker has declined from
where it once was. Attitudes have changed among the
existing work force, which effects attendance, drug
use, and ultimately, productivity.'”
Coalfield publisher calls for
dialogue between coal firms, news media
Appalachian News-Express Publisher
Marty Backus wrote in an editorial that Massey Energy's
Don Blankenship and other coal executives in the region
need to be more open with reporters, and Backus suggested
a roundtable discussion among journalists in the region
and those who operate its coal mines.
"Until the coal industry and the news media find
some way of communicating, it's always going to be the
media beating up on the companies," Backus writes.
"First off, the reporter who is gathering the news
generally doesn't know the first thing about the coal
industry and they take any bit of information they can
dig up from anywhere. It's usually not from a coal-company
official, because they have no trust in the media, which
means they keep themselves away from providing facts
-- on any subject, whether it be good or bad for the
coal industry.
"It's a shame both sides can't get together and
air their grievances and come to some understanding.
Maybe the media can learn more about what a coal operation
is and not be so critical in their reporting. There's
two sides to every story, which I think reporters often
miss in getting the company's side. However, you can't
get the facts when the information door is always closed."
The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community
Issues is inviting coal industry leaders in
the region to a roundtable with news outlets.
"For example, it's practically impossible for
the local coal-region news media to get an audience
with the coal bosses, such as Don L. Blankenship, the
chief executive of Massey. But let the Wall
Street Journal from New York City come along
and they appear to get anything they want, such as a
front page story in their Feb. 13 issue. As I've written
before, The Appalachian News-Express is not an enemy
of the coal companies. All we want is a dialog with
them, and it appears that's not in the cards."
(Read
more)
The Wall Street Journal story on Feb. 13 was not a
puff piece. It detailed Blankenship's huge and controversial
spending on political campaigns and referenda, and noted,
"In 2001, a report commissioned by then-Gov. Bob
Wise said the company's accident record 'would be among
the highest' if contract workers were included. . .
. In recent weeks, four workers have died at Massey-owned
mines in West Virginia, two of them in a fire on Jan.
21. . . . Rep. Lidella Hrutkay, a Democrat from the
county where the accident occurred, criticized Mr. Blankenship
on the floor of the House, saying he should have poured
millions of dollars into improving safety at Massey's
mines instead of into state politics." (Read
more)
Pittsburgh paper looks at West
Virginia foes of mountaintop-removal mining
"In a state that has bred some of the country's
most storied citizen battles against the powers that
be, mountaintop mining has matured as a galvanizing
issue in West Virginia," reports Diana Nelson Jones
of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
In 2004, only 70 of West Virginia's 544 coal mines
involved removal of mountaintops, but those mines accounted
for 26 percent of coal production in the Mountain State
that year, according to the state Office of
Miners' Health, Safety and Training.
"Our wells, our land, our homes, our culture,
our very lives are being threatened. Will it take a
tragedy for us to be heard?" asks Maria Gunnoe,
who tells Jones that her yard has been washed away by
water from a nearby mountaintop-removal mine.
Nelson relates such concerns to more recent news about
safety in underground mines: "The dangers of mountaintop
removal usually do not present horrifying dramas featuring
a rescue team, a ticking clock and a countable number
of lives at stake. And you can't even see most of West
Virginia's topless mountains unless you board a plane
or drive to the top of a peak with a view. But according
to Vivian Stockman, an organizer for the Ohio
Valley Environmental Council, who claims that
'Over the last several years, at least 12 people have
died in floods exacerbated by mountaintop removal.'"
Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia
Coal Association, told Jones that mountaintop
removal is "a responsible method of mining, recognized
in state and federal surface mining acts. It is a methodical,
well engineered, sophisticated method and it does its
best to protect the environment. ... There's not a drop
of water that doesn't go through treatment." Raney
said there may be "a reduction in elevation,"
but, Jones paraphrases, "coal gets extracted and
West Virginia gets valuable pieces of flat real estate."
(Read
more)
Eastern Iowa faces an unlikely
outbreak of heroin use; meth replacement?
"The case of a 13-year-old runaway from Minneapolis
who was kidnapped and brought to eastern Iowa has led
to investigations of child prostitution and heroin trafficking,
rare crimes in rural America," reports Erin Jordan
of The Des Moines Register.
Jordan writes the probe is "a window into a drug
ring connected to a rash of heroin deaths and overdoses
in eastern Iowa, law enforcement officers said. . .
. When the drug was first popular in the 1970s, it was
less than 10 percent pure. The purity of heroin found
recently in eastern Iowa has been as great as 80 percent,
said Rick LaMere, a federal Drug Enforcement
Administration agent in Cedar Rapids."
The purer product "can be snorted instead of injected,"
avoiding "the risk and stigma of needles,"
Jordan reports. Now law-enforcement officers are wondering
if new laws to suppress methamphetamine use and production
have created a niche for heroin. (Read
more)
Illinois Farm Bureau restarts
'Crime Stoppers in the country;' meth a factor
At least 36 counties in Illinois are participating
in "a new program designed to encourage people
to report crimes committed against farmland and other
agriculture-related property in rural areas," reports
Karen Walters of The Pantagraph in
Bloomington and Normal, Ill.
"It's Crime Stoppers in the country," Walters
writes. "A $1,000 reward will be paid to an informant
who provides a tip leading to a felony conviction. Farmers
can post signs on their property saying they support
the program. Livingston County Sheriff Bob McCarty said
farmers need to make sure machinery and other equipment,
like anhydrous ammonia tanks, are secure." Anhydrous
ammonia is used to make methamphetamine, still a scourge
in many rural areas.
"The program mimics one the organization operated
in the 1970s that lasted about 10 years. Members paid
10 cents per year and displayed [an Illinois
Farm Bureau] decal saying their farm was under
watch," Walters reports. "Farmers are encouraged
to be proactive in preventing crimes by locking and
shutting items, as well as providing good lighting."
(Read
more)
Wal-Mart, fast-food chains top
list of Ohio firms with workers on Medicaid
"Wal-Mart and McDonald's
top a new state list of Ohio employers who send the
most people to the Medicaid, food stamp and welfare
rolls," according to a state study, reports The
Plain Dealer.
"The much-anticipated Ohio Department
of Job and Family Services review was ordered
amid pressure from legislators, advocates and the press,
questioning why Medicaid spending is eating up an ever-increasing
share of the state budget," reports Julie Carr
Smyth for the Cleveland newspaper. The study "did
not distinguish between full-time and part-time employees."
(Read
more)
After Wal-Mart and McDonald's, the Ohio employers with
the most workers and relatives on Medicaid were Yum!
Brands, parent of KFC, Taco Bell, A&W,
Pizza Hut and Long John Silver's;
and Wendy's and Bob Evans,
two restaurant chains that started in Ohio. "The
list includes many retailers, restaurants and health-care
companies, including the Cleveland Clinic,"
reports Catherine Candisky of The Columbus Dispatch.
(Read
more)
Yesterday, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott told the National
Governors Association that legislation requiring
the company to spend more on health benefits "may
score short-term political points, but they won't solve
America's health care challenges." He said the
company's "health plans were 'not perfect' but
that the company was committed to improving the health
care system by expanding its benefits and by opening
low-cost medical clinics for workers and the public
in its stores," reports Michael Barbaro of The
New York Times. (Read
more) To read Scott's full speech, click
here. For a broader look at the governors' meeting,
from Daniel C. Vock of Stateline.org,
click
here.
Religious
older women stay more active than male counterparts,
says study
A new study suggests that older women who are religious
are more likely to stay active.
Older women who attend religious services are more
prone to being physical active, according to the study
from researcher R. Frank Gillum, M.D., a physician with
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s
National Center for Health Statistics.
The association between physical activity and devotion
did not show up for older religious men or religious
younger adults, reports Newswise, a
news and public relations service for higher-education
and research firms.
The study analyzed data for 11,820 people from the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. It
is the first national examination of the link between
religiousness and physical activity, Gillum said. The
analysis did not explore why older religious women are
more active, but social scientists know that women age
60 and older are the nation's most religious group,
notes Newswise.
In Gillum’s study, people who reported that they
attended services at least one a week were grouped together
as one measure of religiousness. (Read
more)
Rural Californians want addresses
to remain a factor in insurance rates
"Urban and rural interests clashed Friday at a
hearing on proposed state regulations that would bar
insurers from using ZIP codes to determine auto insurance
rates," reports the San Jose Mercury News.
State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi says a
previous commissioner, by allowing addresses to be used
in determining rates, violated a law voters passed in
1988. The law requires that driving record, experience
and miles traveled be the main factors.
"At a hearing Garamendi held Friday in San Francisco,
elected officials from rural counties argued that the
proposed rules would subsidize urban drivers at the
expense of their constituents," writes Matthai
Chakko Kuruvila. "Insurance industry officials
believe that ZIP codes more accurately determine a person's
risk of filing a claim than driving ability and other
factors. Urban areas have higher concentrations of people,
car thefts and vandalism and thus more insurance claims,
said Bob Downer, the former chief actuary for Farmers
Insurance. He also said urban residents are
more likely to sue if they're injured in an accident,
raising costs for insurers. But groups representing
Latinos, African-Americans and urban senior citizens
argued that ZIP code-based insurance rates discriminated
against them." (Read
more)
Bird flu found in France; China
warns of possible 'massive outbreak'
China's agriculture minister is warning of a possible
"massive bird-flu outbreak" as the country
announced two new human cases of the H5N1 flu strain,
raising to 14 the number of human-infections reports
since October, reports The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, "The European Union's first outbreak
of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in commercial poultry
was confirmed Saturday in France, the EU's largest poultry
producer. But President Jacques Chirac sought to ease
fears by insisting that eating poultry is safe and that
panic is unjustified," AP reports. "Japan
and Hong Kong temporarily suspended imports of French
poultry." (Read
more)
Birmingham News prints unseen
civil rights photos unearthed by intern
Hundreds of photos from the civil rights era were lost,
sold, stolen or stored in archives at The Birmingham
News. Some of those pictures appeared Sunday
for the first time in the newspaper in a section titled
"Unseen. Unforgotten."
"The section is the result of research by Alexander
Cohn, a 30-year-old former photo intern at The News.
In November 2004, Cohn went through an equipment closet
at the newspaper in search of a lens and saw a cardboard
box full of negatives marked, 'Keep. Do Not Sell,'"
writes Barnett Wright of The Birmingham News (Read
more). Dozens of the pictures are available on this
Web
site.
Some of the images will be on display starting March
13 at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. To read
The Associated Press story, click
here.
Lee Enterprises Inc. names Joyce
Dehli vice president for news
Joyce Dehli, director of editorial development at Lee
Enterprises Inc., has been promoted to vice
president for news. Dehli, 47, has run the company's
journalism training programs since last April. Previously,
she was editorial training manager, and before that,
managing editor of the Wisconsin State Journal
in Madison, where she had held several reporting
and editing jobs. Earlier in her career, she worked
at The Courier-Journal and the old
Louisville Times.
Dehli succeeds David Stoeffler, who took a leave of
absence from the company several months ago. Lee, based
in Davenport, Iowa, owns 52 daily newspapers and more
than 100 weeklies, and has a joint interest in six other
dailies. It has more than 300 weeklies, shoppers and
classified and specialty publications.
Rural
Calendar
Mar.
1: Signup deadline for National Farm to School Training
in New Orleans
The National Farm to School Program, a collaboration
of the Center for Food & Justice,
a division of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute
at Occidental College, and the Community
Food Security Coalition, is offering the National
Farm to School Training for farm to school practitioners
of all levels who would like to establish new programs
or improve existing programs with new tools and strategies.
Training is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., March 13 at the Garden
District Hotel in New Orleans. Registration
deadline is March 1. For information call 323-341-5095,
or e-mail ajoshi@oxy.edu.
March
2-3: Navigating the Global American South, UNC-Chapel
Hill
The University Center for International Studies at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
in collaboration with the university's Center for the
Study of the American South and support from Quintiles
Transnational Corp., invites you to explore
the economic, political and social impact of globalization
in the American South. For more information, please
check www.ucis.unc.edu/globalsouth/conference06.
For the schedule, click
here. For registration, click
here. You can contact the University Center for
International Studies at globalsouth@unc.edu.
March 3-4: Training for solar
water heater installers in Louisville
The Kentucky Solar Partnership and
University of Louisville Energy Center
are sponsoring a two-day workshop March 3-4, 2006 in
Louisville to train installers of solar water heaters.
The course is geared to plumbing and heating contractors
and other interested persons. For more information and
to register contact solar@kysolar.org.
March 8: Panel, film on how
to help rural families avoid 'the money trap'
Many rural families work hard but struggle to meet
day-to-day expenses or to build a cash cushion for unexpected
financial blows. Money traps such as payday loans, high-interest
car loans, tax-refund anticipation loans, and other
predatory financial practices make their struggle to
pull even or move ahead more difficult. This briefing
will provide new research and tools to address money
traps and other obstacles to building family financial
stability and success. Current policy initiatives and
innovative approaches to address these issues will be
discussed.
Ralph Smith, senior vice president of the Annie
E. Casey Foundation, will speak on "Leveling
the Field for Rural Working Families: A Commonsense
Consensus." His comments will be followed by a
premiere of the 25-minute documentary Avoiding the
Money Trap and a panel discussion among nationally-renowned
experts, including Cynthia M. "Mil" Duncan
of the Carsey Institute at the University of
New Hampshire and Jean Ann Fox of the Consumer
Federation of America.
The event will be held Wednesday, March
8, from 10 a.m. to noon in Room 233-235 of the Hall
of the States at 444 North Capitol Street NW
in Washington. Reservations are required. RSVP to Helina
at 301-656-0348 or helina@thehatchergroup.com.
Friday,
Feb. 24, 2006
Small high schools often unfairly
criticized about costs and academics
"A new study . . . skewers the common assumption
that large high schools cost less to build than small
schools. In fact, the study found that smaller high
schools, on average, cost about the same per student
to build as larger high schools and they cost less per
square foot than larger high schools. The findings hold
true across rural and suburban areas," reports
Rural Policy Matters.
"As research evidence supporting small schools
has accumulated -- confirming better academic and social
outcomes for students and equivalent operating costs
when compared to larger schools-prevailing wisdom has
continued to assert that economies of scale are achieved
in larger construction projects. As a result, many state
policies push large new schools on economic justifications.
The study found that smaller schools cost the same per
student and less per square foot to build than larger
schools." (Read
more)
The study was done by education researcher Craig Howley.
Click
here to read it.
The latest edition of Rural Policy Matters also has
a story titled, "What's the Beef with Small High
Schools in Iowa?" Despite small high schools in
Iowa being criticized for failing to provide adequate
course offerings and educational programs, this article
reports that smaller districts actually provide more
computers per pupil, and offer smaller class sizes than
do larger districts. (Read
more)
Rural schools undergo demographic
change with jumps in diversity
Rural America has been diverse for centuries, but that
mix is increasing dramatically in some states.
The Rural Trust analyzed data from
the National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES) and the Census Bureau to investigate
demographic changes in rural communities. The NCES tracks
students in five NCES-designated racial/ethnic categories-American
Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black
Non-Hispanic, Hispanic, and White Non-Hispanic.
In 1993-94, enrollment in rural schools nationally
was 2.57% American Indian/Alaskan Native; .37% Asian/Pacific
Islander; 8.30% Black Non-Hispanic; 3.16% Hispanic;
and 84.55% White Non-Hispanic. By 2002-03, those percentages
had shifted to 2.97% American Indian/Alaskan Native;
.55% Asian/Pacific Islander; 7.92% Black Non-Hispanic;
4.98% Hispanic; and 80.94% White Non-Hispanic.
The ten states that experienced the most growth in
the numbers of Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and
American Indian/Alaskan Native students in rural schools
are North Carolina (10,955 more students in rural schools),
Oklahoma (+10,919), Texas (+10,145), California (+7,963),
Kansas (+4,092), Florida (+3,604), Colorado (+3,352),
Washington (+3,223), Wisconsin (+2,505), Missouri (+2,501),
and Minnesota (+2,450). (Read
more)
Senators back bills to open
unused TV channels for wireless broadband
New legislation in the U.S. Senate would direct the
Federal Communications Commission to
open unused television channels in each local market
for unlicensed wireless broadband access.
"These tremendously valuable — and presently
dormant — TV band frequencies represent the much-needed
rocket fuel that rural and other under-served areas
need for affordable broadband deployment. Vacant TV
channels are perfectly suited for WiFi and other unlicensed
wireless Internet technologies. . . . Access to TV spectrum
will allow commercial ISPs, municipalities and non-profit
community efforts to deploy wide-area wireless broadband
networks quickly and at a low cost," reports Spectrumpolicy.org.
In 2004, the FCC began rulemaking procedures to accomplish
this task, but progress stalled with the departure of
Chairman Michael Powell. (Read
more)
"Both new bills would instruct the FCC to move
more quickly on concluding those rulemaking procedures,"
writes Anne Broache of News.com. "The
agency would have to come up with technical rules and
guidelines for those operating on the unlicensed spectrum,
with an eye toward preventing 'harmful interference'
from the new devices." (Read
more)
Minnesota governor
pledges to provide everyone with broadband access
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Wednesday he'll support
a plan to make his state a world leader in high-speed
Internet access, reports John Reinan of the Star
Tribune in Minneapolis.
"The United States trails many Asian and European
nations in the speed and price of its high-speed broadband
connections, with countries such as Japan and South
Korea offering Internet connections as much as 100 times
faster than those available here. In some rural Minnesota
communities, consumers and businesses have access only
to slow dial-up connections," writes Reinan.
Pawlenty supports a plan developed by a group of state
leaders led by the Blandin Foundation,
which focuses on Minnesota. It aims to develop Japanese-style
broadband service throughout the state, and to make
it available to every resident, business and institution
at affordable rates, notes Reinan. (Read
more)
Wal-Mart plans
to expand health insurance, but offers few specifics
Wal-Mart Stores, a big employer in
rural America, says it will soon allow part-time employees
to enroll their children in a health insurance plan
and cut the waiting time for new part-time employee
to be eligible for benefits. The company declined to
say how the waiting period will be cut.
Currently, only full-time workers can have health coverage
for children, and part-timers must wait two years before
enrolling, while full-timers must wait only six months.
Wal-Mart's workers average less than $20,000 in pay
per year, and they will still pay monthly premiums and
big deductibles, writes Michael Barbaro of The
New York Times.
Wal-Mart insures fewer than half of its 1.3 million
U.S. employees, and critics say its policies place the
burden of providing health care on state governments.
The Maryland Legislature has passed a law that would
force Wal-Mart to expand its benefits, and a dozen other
states, including California, Colorado and Rhode Island,
are considering similar measures.
Wal-Mart says 75 percent of its workers have health
insurance, either through the company, a spouse or a
previous job. "Wal-Mart has never said how many
of its employees' children rely on company insurance,
but an internal memo written by M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's
executive vice president for benefits, disclosed that
46 percent of them were uninsured or on Medicaid,"
writes Barbaro. (Read
more)
Virginia and Maryland
hew to heritage, reject indoor smoking bans
Virginia, where the tobacco industry began in 1619,
and Maryland, another state with a tobacco heritage,
have rejected legislation against indoor smoking.
"Flirtations with smoking bans in Virginia and
Maryland came to abrupt ends yesterday, as legislative
panels in each state rejected bills that would have
made restaurants and virtually all other public places
smoke-free," write Rosalind S. Helderman and Ann
E. Marimow of The Washington Post.
Eleven other states have approved smoking bans, backed
by evidence about the health risks of breathing secondhand
smoke, report Helderman and Marimow. (Read
more) Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights says
there are more than 11. To see its list, click
here.
In Virginia, a House subcommittee unanimously rejected
a bill that already had Senate approval. "The House
instituted rule changes this year that allow subcommittees
to kill legislation before it reaches a full committee,"
raising questions, report Mason Adams and Michael Sluss
of the The Roanoke Times. Senate Floor
Leader Thomas Norment, R-Williamsburg, told them he
respected the "sovereignty of the House to adopt
rules," but "I do think that a bill that has
come out of the Senate with a significant vote, and
a bill that is a significant policy decision where reasonable
people can differ, probably should be afforded an opportunity
before the full committee." (Read
more)
Rural North Carolina needs $1
billion to improve water, sewer systems
North Carolina's legislature should consider a $1 billion
bond referendum to help the state's poorest regions
upgrade aging water and sewer systems, a state policy
center suggested Thursday.
"The money will help the state catch up on an
estimated $6.85 billion in projected statewide repairs
and improvements needed over the next five years, officials
of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development
Center said. Voters would have to approve the
bonds in a statewide election that could come as early
as November," reports Gary D. Robertson of The
Associated Press. (Read
more)
The center recommended creating a permanent revenue
source to pay for water, sewer and stormwater runoff
system needs. Rural areas have a hard time securing
repair funds, and poor systems make it difficult to
attract industry, notes AP. "This state is growing
and all of our infrastructure was put in by FDR,"
said Sen. John Kerr, D-Wayne, referring to Depression-era
projects. "These pipes are older than we are."
Hunting game: New Hampshire
lawmakers set sights on elk, deer
New Hampshire's House passed a bill Wednesday "that
would allow hunters or other game meat buyers to go
onto a farm where red deer or elk are raised and choose
their animal. They could then shoot it and take the
carcass home for meat," writes Jason Schreiber
of The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover,
Mass.
Supporters say the measure would support an alternative
form of livestock farming since the cost to take animals
to federally approved slaughterhouses is high. Also,
farmers who raise red deer and elk are no longer allowed
to ship animals to other states because of worries over
contagious chronic wasting disease that kills deer,
notes Schreiber.
The bill, which goes to the Senate next, has been opposed
by hunting advocates and the state Fish and Game Department.
Opponents call it an unfair form of hunting, and they
say it only props up a business that might be failing,
reports Schreiber. (Read
more)
Northern Kentucky's
Sunday-only 'voice' shuts down after 20 months
A Sunday-only newspaper called "A Voice for Northern
Kentucky" has spoken for the last time.
The co-owner and the publisher of The
Sunday Challenger announced last weekend
that the paper for Cincinnati's Kentucky suburbs had
printed its last edition. Co-owner Bill Butler, who
launched the Sunday Challenger in July 2004, blamed
the closing on increased efforts by the Cincinnati
Enquirer and that paper's parent, Gannett
Co., acquiring the Community
Recorder weeklies in northern Kentucky, reports
Mark Fitzgerald of Editor & Publisher.
The Sunday Challenger home-delivered 60,000 copies
with another 5,000 copies distributed in racks and store
drops, according to a report in The Cincinnati
Post. President and Publisher Donald J. Then
called the closure "a matter of pure economics,"
reports Fitzgerald.
Butler said he hoped the Gannett papers keep up their
improved coverage, saying, "From where I sit, it's
truly important that you don't short-change the public's
right to know with wire-service tripe to squeeze every
dollar you can for corporate profit." (Read
more)
Thursday,
Feb. 23, 2006
'Covering and Guiding
Rural Economic Development' seminar April 7
Many local news outlets have played a
role in bringing jobs to their communities, both with
stories and editorials and with civic leadership. Today,
they and their communities face new challenges. For
example, globalization has made it more difficult for
American communities to attract and retain jobs, and
many rural communities face technological obstacles
in keeping up with the rest of the country and the world.
To help rural journalists cover these issues and provide
responsible civic leadership, the Institute
for Rural Journalism and Community Issues will
present a workshop, “Covering and Guiding Rural
Economic Development,” in Murray, Ky. on April
7. The conference at Murray State University
will be held in conjunction with the spring
meeting of the West Kentucky Press Association;
the fee, which includes lunch, will be $25 for WKPA
members and $50 for non-members.
Confirmed speakers include Hilda Legg, who recently
headed the federal Rural Utilities Service
and is keen on the issue of getting high-speed Internet
to rural areas; Brian Mefford of ConnectKentucky,
a business-government alliance that promotes technology
development; Mickey Johnson, district director of Murray
State's Small Business Development Center,
which encourages entrepreneurship; Paul Monsour, former
Union County Advocate editor, who now
heads the county economic development foundation; Justin
Maxson of the Mountain Association for Community
Economic Development, which encourages local
entrepreneurship and questions the effectiveness of
state economic-development incentives; Keith Rogers,
executive director of the Governor's Office
of Agricultural Policy, which oversees Kentucky's
spending of tobacco-settlement money for agriculture;
and Laura Skillman, an award-winning journalist who
heads news services for the agricultural-communicatins
unit at the University of Kentucky.
Invited speakers include Ron Hustedde of the UK Cooperative
Extension Service, who runs an Entrepreneurial
Coaches Institute to develop and encourage
entrepreneurs to create jobs in rural areas; Kathy B.
White of Rural Sourcing of Jonesboro,
Ark., and Durham, N.C.; and state Sen. Dorsey Ridley,
a Henderson banker.
Sessions are planned on access to broadband and other
technology, entreprenurship, local and state incentives
to recruit and retain jobs, the evolution of rural economies
from farming to manufacturing to services, new ways
to make money in agriculture, the investment of the
tobacco settlement, how to manage conflicts in journalistic
and civic roles, and ways communities can cooperate
to attract jobs.
Detailed registration information will be issued soon,
but you may pre-register by clicking
here.
Republican senator
joins fight against plan to sell pieces of national
forests
Opposition is growing to the Bush administration's
proposal to sell public lands and use the revenue to
fund rural schools and roads, with one Republican senator
breaking ranks and joining Democrats in the fight.
Now, "U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., says the
proposal to sell federal lands to pay for reauthorization
of the Secure Rural Schools Act is 'dead in the water,'"
writes Perry Backus of The Missoulian.
Although he is now joining Democrats, Burns co-sponsored
the original Secure Rural Schools Act legislation in
2000 and does not want to use public land to reauthorize
that. (Read
more)
Burns' staff recently met with representatives of the
Montana Wilderness Association, National
Wildlife Federation and county governments.
Burns said he was no longer interested in supporting
the Bush administration's proposal. Burns chairs the
Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.
For The Rural Blog's initial report on this issue,
which has received much coverage in the last two weeks,
click
here.
Research finds newspaper readership,
including on-line accessing, growing
If you count on-line readers, a study
shows, newspapers are a growing source of information.
"Even in the newspaper industry, no problem is
ever quite black and white. Despite a tsunami of competition
from radio, TV, cable, the Internet and now podcasting,
more than half of American adults read a daily newspaper,"
writes Brian Deagon of Investor's Business Daily.
The figure jumps to 75 percent when counting those who
read a paper once or twice a week, usually for special
sections, Scarborough Research found.
Gary Meo, a vice president at Scarborough, told Deagon,
"The state of the newspaper business is not as
dramatic as stories report. Declines in newspaper circulation
have been slow and steady, but it is not catastrophic."
Meo added that when print and online audiences are combined,
newspaper readership is growing. Meo said, "The
newspaper business has recognized their future is digital."
The research showed that no major newspaper companies
reported "near-death'" earnings last month.
All were in the black and analysts were more concerned
about new products, writes Deagon. (Read
more)
Judging contest
recharges editor's batteries, and one entry gives him
a buzz
Ed Jones, editor of The Free Lance-Star
in Fredericksburg, Va., writes that judging
entries in the American Society of Newspaper
Editors contest last week recharged his batteries.
"My judging stint gave me a booster
shot of new admiration for journalists across the nation,"
Jones writes. "All I are a couple of steps back
from the day-to- day hurly-burly of putting out a newspaper
to rediscover why I love journalism so much. At its
best, journalism is a breathtaking force for good."
Jones recounts the good work of mostly
large papers, but concludes, "The most eye-catching
entry came from Mike Trimble, the opinion editor of
the Denton (Texas) Record-Chronicle,
who's not in the habit of mincing his words. Reacting
to Gov. Rick Perry's suggestion that homosexual war
veterans from Iraq should move to some 'more lenient'
state, Trimble reasoned: 'We do not want our governor
to be a bigot. We fervently hope he just said something
stupid again. We can live with stupid.'" To read
Jones's column, click
here. To read Trimble's editorial, click
here.
UPDATE: Trimble
won the ASNE award for distinguished editorial writing.
Paper in heart
of Appalachian coalfield tackles coal-mining issues
Small newspapers in Central Appalachia
do relatively little reporting on environmental issues,
unless there is a disaster, but the Williamson
Daily News is breaking out of that mold. It
recently published a three-part series on the coal industry
and its labor issues, a reporter's column criticizing
the area's main coal company for its attitude toward
news coverage, and a two-part series on coal-waste impoundments
like the one that burst in 2000, creating the largest
environmental disaster in the Southeast.
"Billions of gallons of coal slurry
and water sits behind earthen dams throughout southern
West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. What would happen
if one of these facilities were to break above a populated
community?" asks reporter Kyle Lovern, who attended
the "Covering
Coal" seminar held by the Institute
for Rural Journalism and Community Issues in
November.
"The Mountain State has over 130
coal slurry impoundments, many in the southern counties.
In neighboring Kentucky, several impoundments are located
in both Pike and Martin counties," Lovern reports
for the 8,760-circulation daily, which also covers parts
of Kentucky. "The www.coalimpoundment.com
Web site has information on all of the slurry dams
throughout the region. It is complete with contact information
for the coal companies, emergency services and evacuation
routes."
To read Lovern's work, click
here.
Illinois
farm group opposes mining method known to make land
subside
Farmers in one Illinois county have formed a coalition
of landowners to oppose plans for "longwall"
coal mining, fearing the practice will cause their land
to subside.
"The Longwall Mining Action Project
is not against mining in the area, according to representatives
of Montgomery County's farm bureau and soil and water
conservation district. But the group hopes to avoid
possible surface subsidence caused by the longwall method,"
writes Daniel Pike of the Springfield State
Journal Register.
Longwall mining is a more advanced method that increases
the chances of subsidence beyond that of the original
"room-and-pillar" approach, in which corridors
are mined through a seam and the unmined area creates
pillars that support the mine roof and other rock strata
above.
Farm Bureau manager Bob Lentz told Pike, "Our
concern is, how can it be exactly like it was before
it was pre-mine when it's already going to be subsided
four to five feet?" The Montgomery County Board
agreed in 2004 to sell 120,000 acres of coal reserves
to Colt LLC of West Virginia, a deal
that could mean about $7.2 million and 600 jobs for
the county.
Colt vice president Jim Morris told Pike that if enough
farmers oppose longwall mining, the company would have
to employ the room-and-pillar method. (Read
more)
Court nixes judge's ruling barring
report of testimony on his misconduct
The Supreme Court of Arkansas struck down yesterday
a judge's restraining order prohibiting the Helena
Daily World "from reporting testimony
made in open court about the judge's alleged misconduct,"
reports the Reporters Committee for Freedom
of the Press.
More than a year ago, on Jan. 6, 2005, Phillips County
Circuit Judge L.T. Simes II ordered the parties, attorneys,
the newspaper and anyone at the open hearing not to
relay "in any fashion whatsoever . . . any information
heard or received at the said hearing," a seven-judge
panel noted.
"Although we are sensitive to the concerns raised
by the respondent, we find that, in this particular
case, they are insufficient to counterbalance the public
interest in the knowledge of what has transpired at
judicial proceedings that are open to the public,"
wrote Justice Betty C. Dickey wrote for the court.
"Simes' order came during a hearing in a highly
publicized case between West Helena Mayor Johnny Weaver
and the city council over Weaver's attempt to oust the
city's police chief," says the Reporters Committee.
"In the hearing, Weaver requested to have Judge
Simes recused from the case. He alleged that Simes had
improperly started conversations with him about the
case without the opposing party present in which the
judge asked the mayor to deal leniently with the police
chief, and had an interest in a radio station that broadcast
council meetings." (Read
more)
TVA sets date for Chattanooga-area
land sale with one qualified bidder
The Tennessee Valley Authority plans
to auction 578 acres on the shores of Nickajack Lake
near
Chattanooga Tuesday for one of the largest private developments
along the Tennessee River.
TVA spokeswoman Barbara Martocci told reporters, "Chattanooga
developer John 'Thunder' Thornton's Nickajack
Shores LLC development group is the only qualified
bidder," reports The Associated Press.
For the original Chattanooga Times Free Press
story, click
here ($1.95 cost).
Martocci also told reporters, "We responded to
nine requests for information (from other possible
bidders) and of the nine, only one group submitted a
bid package to TVA." She would not identify the
potential bidder but did say said it failed to meet
requirements.
AP reports the minimum bid is $7.2 million which includes
fair market value for the land, mitigation fees and
administrative costs associated with the auction. The
buyer must offer about 1,100 acres of exchange land
that "supports diverse recreational opportunities,
habitat and historic resources." (Read
more)
Alaska governor paves way for
gas pipeline, may overhaul oil taxes
In a rural state full of pristine vistas, Alaska Gov.
Frank Murkowski has announced a deal that could clear
the way for a natural gas pipeline and has introduced
legislation to change how oil companies are taxed.
"The Murkowski administration has been working
for the better part of two years on a deal that would
clear the way for construction of a natural gas pipeline.
Today, the governor announced that BP
and ExxonMobil agreed in principle
to a gas pipeline contract. ConocoPhillips
agreed to the contract
terms several months ago," reports KTUU-TV
of Anchorage.
The administration's plan would replace the present
system that taxes oil production in favor of a tax on
profits. The change could mean an extra $1 billion a
year for the state. Murkowski said, “We want to
enable and encourage smaller producers and that’s
what we’ve done,” reports KTUU-TV. (Read
more)
Strange bedfellows: Rare alliance
forged to protect Wisconsin waters
Conservation groups, regulatory agencies, farmers and
University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists
are making an unprecedented effort to preserve Wisconsin's
lakes, rivers and streams.
"For three years, the consortium -- known as
the Wisconsin Buffer Initiative --
has pondered how best to combat ecological offenders
such as phosphorus, nitrogen and the sediments that
seep from agricultural lands into state waters,"
reports the university, via Newswise,
a news and public relations service for higher-education
and research firms. Recommendations include a watershed
ranking system which divides the state into 1,600 18
square-mile hydrological units based on their ability
to handle restoration measures.
Riparian buffers, or strips of vegetated land that
lie adjacent to water, have been the center of discussion.
"Scientists have known for years that among other
ecological benefits, buffers serve as effective natural
filters that can absorb pollutants from farmland runoff,"
writes the university.
But the Wisconsin Buffer Initiative wants to know where
in the state's diverse agricultural landscape the buffers
would have the greatest impact for the lowest cost.
UW-Madison's team of soil scientists, ecologists and
agricultural engineers have studied the matter for several
years. Pete Nowak, a UW-Madison professor of rural sociology
who chaired the WBI process, said, "We hope this
project will reestablish Wisconsin as a leader in natural
resource management." (Read
more)
Kentucky communities eyes smoking
ban; advocacy group releases study
In a state where tobacco once reigned supreme, some
Kentucky communities are eyeing a smoking ban for public
places, while another city's leaders are against the
idea.
Oldham County, just up Interstate 71 from Louisville,
may follow in its "footsteps and snuff out smoking
in restaurants. A group of school and health officials
and others is pushing for a smoking ban in public buildings.
And if the group gets its way, there will be few if
any exceptions to the rule," writes Andrea Uhde
of The Courier-Journal of nearby Louisville.
Dori Livy, an employee of the county health department
and member of the Oldham County Tobacco Awareness
Coalition, told Uhde, "We're a different
community. We will be looking at it differently."
Livy hopes the Fiscal Court will pass an ordinance before
the November elections. Judge-Executive Mary Ellen Kinser
will hold a meeting from 7 to 8 p.m. Monday at the courthouse
in La Grange, 100 W. Jefferson St., so restaurant owners
can get information. (Read
more)
In Ashland, a group pushing for a smoking ban has released
a study on the effects of second-hand or "sidestream
smoking" on restaurant employees and non-smoking
patrons. "Indoor air pollution in Ashland restaurants
and bars that permit smoking is 10 times higher than
similar locations in smoke-free cities [nationwide],
according to a study," writes Mike James of The
Independent. But the results are not persuading
city leaders to consider a ban. The Greater
Ashland Smoke-Free Policy initiative conducted
the study by visiting 15 restaurants and bars with portable
air-monitoring equipment. (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Tonight: Panel on coal at Mount
Holyoke College in Massachusetts
"Un/Natural Intervention: Changed Lands and Transformed
Lives" is a panel discussion that focuses on coal,
the communities that it affects, and the land from which
it comes. Panelists include Barbara Freese, attorney
and author of Coal: A Human History; Robin
Webb, a former miner who now serves as a state legislator
in Kentucky; and Hillary Hosta of Coal River
Mountain Watch, a West Virginia-based environmental
organization that illuminates the natural and unnatural
environmental aspects of mining.
The conversation is intended to honor the lives of
miners who died in recent disasters in West Virginia
and the many coal workers around the world who die each
year in mining-related accidents. It is scheduled for
Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of
the Art Building at Mount Holyoke College
in South Hadley, Mass. The event is free and open to
the public. Click
here for directions, here
for a map.
Tomorrow: Forum at UNC-Chapel
Hill on religion in the public schools
Several of the most prominent voices in the national
debate over religion in public schools will take part
in a daylong symposium on Feb. 24 sponsored by the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of
Law’s First Amendment Law Review. Admission to
the symposium (including a continental breakfast) at
the Carolina Inn, adjacent to the UNC campus, is free,
but a $25 fee applies for those who wish to have lunch
on-site. Pre-registration is required; information is
available at http://falr.unc.edu/register.html.
The symposium is certified for six hours of CLE credit
at a cost of $13.50 for registrants. Designed for attorneys,
educators and the public alike, the symposium will feature
panel discussions centering on three of the most pressing
issues related to religion in public schools today.
The keynote speaker will be William Van Alstyne, Lee
professor of law at the College of William and
Mary and a nationally regarded expert on constitutional
law. Speakers will discuss constitutional questions
associated with the teaching of intelligent design in
public school classrooms; the words "under God"
in the Pledge of Allegiance and government-sponsored
religious exercises in public schools; and the possible
reintroduction of religious symbols in classrooms in
light of a reconstituted Supreme Court.
Members of the legal, religious and education communities
will give remarks regarding these issues. Dr. Michael
Newdow, plaintiff and attorney in the cases challenging
inclusion of the words "under God" in the
Pledge of Allegiance, will be a panelist. Two prominent
scientists also will discuss the validity of the theories
of intelligent design and evolution.
Other panelists include Anthony R. Picarello Jr., president
and general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious
Liberty, which is trying to reverse a California
federal judge's injunction prohibiting recitation of
the Pledge of Allegiance in California public schools;
Dr. Scott Minnich, associate professor of microbiology
at the University of Idaho, who recently
testified as an expert witness in support of the teaching
of intelligent design in biology classes in a Pennsylvania
case where a federal judge rules such teaching unconstitutional;
and Richard B. Katskee, assistant legal director of
Americans United for Separation of Church and
State, who represented plaintiffs who opposed
such teaching. For a full list of expected panelists
and information on registration, visit http://falr.unc.edu/symposium.html.
Tomorrow: Entry deadline for
Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism
Now in its seventh year of honoring the high ethical
standards of print, broadcast, and new media journalism,
the Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism is seeking
entries by the Feb. 24 deadline.
Administered by the University of Oregon
School of Journalism and Communication, the Payne Awards
include $1,000 stipends each for the Individual, Organization
and Student categories in print, broadcast, and new
media, reports Editor & Publisher
in a staff report. (Read
more)
Last year’s winners included: The Denver
Post (adhered to established privacy policy
by not naming alleged rape victim even though competing
media did); Kevin Sites (responded thoughtfully, including
use of his blog, when his war footage generated negative
reaction); Jon Lieberman (special citation for speaking
out when he disagreed with his employer, even at the
risk of being fired); The State Press
(the staff of the Arizona State University
student newspaper worked well with administrators when
they and alumni reacted to a photo accompanying a story).
Other past winners include Jay Harris, KOMU-TV,
and Voice of America (2002); Paul DeMain
(2003); Virginia Gerst and The Bakersfield Californian
(2004). For more information, visit the Web site, payneawards.uoregon.edu,
by e-mail, payneawards@jcomm.uoregon.edu
or call 1-888-644-7989.
Saturday: Center for Rural Affairs
Annual Gathering in Kearney, Neb.
The Center for
Rural Affairs Annual Gathering will be held
in Kearney, Nebraska, on Saturday, February 25, 2006,
at the University of Nebraska-Kearney,
in the student center. For more information visit www.cfra.org/events.htm.
Feb. 27: 'Unlocking Washington's
File Cabinet' seminar in Austin, Texas
Washington, for all its virtues and faults, is mainly
a giant file cabinet brimming with information. Through
the Internet and other means, this wealth of information
is now available to enrich the work of journalists everywhere
-- if you know where to find it! You can learn at a
day-long seminar Feb. 27 at the Austin American-Statesman,
presented by the National Press Foundation and
Congressional Quarterly.
The seminar will cover strategies for extracting information
from Washington. Seasoned journalists will share expertise
in tapping into online resources and cultivating political
and governmental contacts at the national levels. Participants
will get year-long access to Congressional Quarterly
databases.
Presenters include Jill Barshay, economics specialist
for CQ Weekly; James R. Carroll, Washington
correspondent for The Courier-Journal
of Louisville; Patricia Edmonds, formerly head of the
online news operation at National Public Radio
and a reporter for USA Today and the
Detroit Free Press; Isaiah J. Poole,
U.S. House leadership reporter for Congressional Quarterly;
David Rapp, Editor of Congressional Quarterly, and Nolan
Walters, program director for the National Press Foundation.
Sessions will focus on: Public Security: A to Z; Capitalizing
on Congressional Connections; Untangling the Social
Safety Net; The Business of Government is Business;
and Strategies for Tapping into Washington.
There is no cost, but reservations are required. Lunch
and breakfast will be served. To reserve a seat, e-mail
intern@nationalpress.org
or call 202-663-7286. Provide name, affiliation,
address, phone and e-mail.
Wednesday,
Feb. 22, 2006
Immigration problems
prompt bills to shift responsibility to employers
Businesses that hire undocumented workers
are becoming a new target for state lawmakers looking
to make hiring them more costly, reports Mark K. Matthews
of Stateline.org.
"In Iowa, state Democratic leaders want the attorney
general to investigate companies that hire undocumented
workers. In Arizona, Gov. Janet Napolitano is backing
a bill that would impose heavy fines on companies that
employ illegal immigrants," notes Matthews.
Matthews writes that similar proposals have been discussed
in a growing number of states, including Colorado, Indiana,
Maryland and New Hampshire, as legislators increase
efforts to deal with illegal immigration by targeting
those who hire illegal immigrants, not just at workers."
Iowa state Rep. Pat Murphy (D), the House minority
leader, told Matthews, “We’re going after
those that mistreat illegal immigrants with low-paying
jobs." Click
here to view state-by-state estimates of undocumented
migrant populations. Matthews notes, "The results
have been a rash of new state laws and more legislation
in 2006 targeting where illegal immigrants can live,
work and learn, he writes. (Read
more)
National Public
Radio's All Things Considered host
Debbie Elliott has an Illegal Immigration Analysis
with Roberto Suro of the Pew Hispanic Center
about what various states are doing to deal with illegal
immigration, as Congress struggles to reform the system.
(Click
here, then click "listen"). NPR also aired
a story on a Georgia bill that targets illegal immigrants'
wire transfers, by Georgia Public Broadcasting.
(Click
here)
Rural papers should
cover immigration issues, weekly editorialist says
Georgia is among the states
that may crack down on illegal immigration, and community
newspapers should cover the issue, writes Dub Joiner,
a staff writer and editorial-page editor for The
Times-Courier of Ellijay, Ga., in this month's
Georgia Press Bulletin of the Georgia
Press Association.
"Editors whose counties
have industries that employ large numbers of Hispanics
should keep an eye open. In the days ahead, there could
be a drop in the number of Hispanic workers if the General
Assembly approves certain immigration-related bills
[that would] not only prevent illegal aliens from getting
drivers' licenses, but also address employers who hire
illegal aliens," Joiner writes, adding that immigration
issues could also play a role in this year's elections.
Immigration is a local
issue "when no action to stop the flow of illegal
aliens seems to be taking place," Joiner argues.
"Editors may also want to take a look at the amount
of money that local hospitals have to write off each
year for indigent care, a large percentage of which
is for care to Hispanics treated in the emergency room."
To get in touch with Hispanic communities,
Joiner suggests visiting churches with Hispanic congregations,
and retailers that cater to Hispanics. He asks, "Shouldn't
we do our part to inform our readers of the situations
in our communities, and what is and is not happening
about it?"
Twenty states ask
feds for flexibility in 'No Child Left Behind' school
law
The U. S. Department of Education
has agreed to review requests from 20 states to alter
significantly the way they measure student progress
under the No Child Left Behind Act.
"The move comes as the number of schools across
the country deemed substandard under that law grows
by the thousands. The requests would allow states to
judge schools by tracking the progress of individual
students over time," writes Diana Jean Schemo of
The New York Times. Currently, schools
must show improvement in successive grades of students.
The states that have applied to make the changes for
the current school year are Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona,
Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa,
North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee and
Utah. Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania
and South Dakota have asked to apply changes next year.
Only 10 states will be permitted to make the changes
in assessing this year's test results, notes Schemo.
"How much growth is ambitious enough that you're
being fair to kids versus what's fair to schools and
school systems?" asked Ross Weiner,
policy director of Education Trust,
a group formed by colleges to assist school-reform efforts.
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Director Lou Fabrizio said under their proposal the
number of their schools deemed failing last year would
have dropped to 810 schools from 932. (Read
more)
Neighbors concerned about safety
of existing, proposed anti-terror labs
Proposals to build new high-security bioterrorism "hot
labs" have unsettled residents around the country.
"Residents in Boston filed a still-pending lawsuit
alleging officials underestimated the potential effect
of a germ release from a proposed research lab at Boston
University," writes Greg Kocher of the
Lexington Herald-Leader in a follow-up
report to yesterday's story on a Kentucky-Tennessee
bid to get a $451 million anti-bioterrorism lab that
will be built somewhere in rural America.
The new lab would study the most dangerous diseases,
requiring the highest level of security. Residents who
live near proposed labs elsewhere have had time to question
their security, the possible release of pathogens, and
whether the labs would become targets for terrorists,
writes Kocher.
Health and safety concerns prompted the Davis, Calif.,
council to oppose a lab at the University of
California campus. UC-Davis did not get the
project. Citizens groups in Hamilton, Mont., successfully
sued the government over another new lab, alleging it
withheld information during the environmental review
process. Mary Wulff, a leader of the effort, is not
comforted by official assurances that there has never
been a release of deadly pathogens into the environment.
She told Kocher, "The potential still exists, whether
it's happened or not." (Read
more)
Federal biologist quits, saying
bosses' policies make him a 'biostitute'
A Washington Post review of bureau
documents and comments from its officials has revealed
the Bureau of Land Management routinely
blocks its own biologists from monitoring wildlife damage
caused by surging energy drilling on federal land.
"The officials and documents say that by keeping
many wildlife biologists out of the field doing paperwork
on new drilling permits and that by diverting agency
money intended for wildlife conservation to energy programs,
the BLM has compromised its ability to deal with the
environmental consequences of the drilling boom it is
encouraging on public lands," writes Blaine Harden.
Steve Belinda, 37, who last week quit his job as one
of three wildlife biologists in the BLM's Pinedale office,
told Harden, "The BLM is pushing the biologists
to be what I call 'biostitutes,' rather than allow them
to be experts in the wildlife they are supposed to be
managing. They are telling us that if it is not energy-related,
you are not working on it."
According to the review, the BLM is neglecting its
congressional mandate to manage federal lands for "multiple
use." For years the BLM has reallocated money Congress
intended for wildlife conservation to spending on energy.
A national evaluation by the agency of its wildlife
expenditures found three years ago that about one-third
of designated wildlife money was spent "outside"
of wildlife programs, notes Harden.
An BLM study has found this widespread diversion of
money has caused "numerous lost opportunities"
to protect wildlife, writes Harden. The agency's Wyoming
director, Bob Bennett, told Harden that officials are
"doing our level best to deal with the impacts"
of energy development on wildlife.(Read
more)
Mine safety legislation would
increase fines; key senator tours mine
Mine operators who violate safety standards would face
greatly increased penalties under legislation introduced
by U. S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
"The legislation would increase fines to $500,000
from the current $60,000 for failing to eliminate violations
that cause death or serious injury and would prohibit
administrative law judges from reducing fines for violations
termed flagrant or habitual," writes Dan Nephin
of The Associated Press.
Specter told reporters the deaths of 12 miners at the
Sago Mine in West Virginia and nine others this year
underscore the danger of mining. He introduced the bill
as Pennsylvania's other senator, fellow Republican Rick
Santorum, a co-sponsor, toured a Consol Energy
Co. mine to see safety conditions.
Santorum, who addressed reporters after touring the
longwall mine 700 to 900 feet below ground, told them,
"One more mining death is one too many. We need
to take prompt action to take a serious look at making
this industry as safe as it can be." Santorum,
the grandson of a coal miner, said he was committed
to ensuring the safety of miners everywhere. (Read
more)
Former Sago Mine foreman indicted
for falsifying '04 inspection reports
A former Sago Mine foreman has been indicted on federal
charges he falsified inspection reports at the mine
in 2004 and was never certified as a miner or mining
foreman.
"The 116-count indictment against Robert L. Dennison
is not related to the Jan. 2 explosion that led to the
deaths of 12 miners. Dennison, 35, was hired in May
2004 by the mine's former owner, Anker Energy,
and was fired in August of that year after the company
learned he was not certified to do safety inspections,
according to the indictment," writes Vicki Smith
of The Associated Press.
U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Johnston told reporters, "This
type of allegedly fraudulent activity has no place in
the mining environment, especially when the safety of
miners is placed at risk." If convicted, Dennison
could face up to five years in prison and $10,000 in
fines for each of 113 counts and up to five years and
$250,000 in fines for each of the remaining counts,
writes Smith. (Read
more)
Kansas legislative panel to
unveil increased school financing bill today
Kansas House members plan to unveil a school finance
bill today that would phase in a funding increase of
about $500 million.
The plan will use ideas from committee hearings and
high-level negotiations between legislative leaders
and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Legislators late yesterday
weren't detaling the exact costs or the number of years
to phase in the increase, reports John Milburn of The
Associated Press. Rep. Kathe Decker, chairwoman
of the school finance committee, said it would likely
be a multiyear plan, notes Milburn.
Last year, legislators raised school spending by $290
million to more than $3 billion. The Kansas Supreme
Court said education funding was still short and indicated
it would order more money absent legislative action
in 2006. A legislative report concluded the state must
spend as much as $470 million more each year to meet
judicial and constitutional mandates, writes Milburn.
House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, told reporters "We're
trying not to penalize any part of the state. Anybody
with at-risk students would benefit." Attorney
Alan Rupe said, "Everything that is being discussed
falls short of what the court has ordered, what the
Legislature determined to be the cost of an adequate
education." (Read
more) For more information, click on the Kansas
Legislature Web site.
Prescription: Groups donate
$15 million for doctors in rural North Carolina
Two health care groups are putting up $15 million
to bring more doctors to rural areas in North Carolina
where they are needed most.
"The organizations hope their grants bring 60
doctors to underserved areas by 2010. The doctors would
be part of the N.C. Medical Society Foundation's
Community Practitioner Program, which was started in
1989," writes Cleve R. Wootson, Jr. of The
Charlotte Observer.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
Foundation and the NCMSF announced the $10
million donation at Gaston Memorial Hospital,
in Gastonia yesterday. The program is to help with the
medical school bills of doctors who practice in rural
and underserved areas, up to $10,000 a year for five
years. The NCMSF expects to raise $5 million in matching
funds for the endowment, notes Wootson.
Charlles Wilson, president of NCMS, told reporters
at the announcement, "Not only do we not have enough
nurses and physician's assistants, we need a new generation
of practitioners to replace those who are getting older.
One of the biggest barriers is the fact that (new doctors)
have all this debt. We don't want doctors to think 'I
can't go back to Gastonia,'" writes Wootson. (Read
more)
With more than 1 million uninsured North Carolinians
living in rural communities, areas that are often economically
depressed, medical professionals say these places unappealing
to doctors. They say there's no profit in practicing
there, reports WRAL-TV in Raleigh.
(Read
more)
Missouri announces funds for
rural information-technology program
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt has announced a $156,660
state grant for Macon County to fund renovations at
the Macon Area Vocational Technical School
to accommodate a new rural information technology program
to help stem the tide of rural brain drain, writes the
Macon Chronicle Herald in a staff report.
Blunt told reporters, “By encouraging new skill
development and training for our rural work force, we
can help reverse the trend to outsource these good family-supporting
jobs offshore so that Missouri's local economies and
families benefit,” writes the Chronicle Herald.
(Read
more)
The Missouri Department of Economic Development
has approved the $156,660 Community Development Block
Grant on behalf of the Macon Area Vocational
Technical School. The funds will be used to
help renovate classrooms to provide new technology,
computer labs and lecture centers.
Vermont bill would use tobacco
settlement cash to pay for health reform
The Vermont legislature is considering a proposal to
tap two pots of tobacco money to raise $66.2 million
over four years to cover the cost of proposed health
reforms.
"The House Health Committee has recommended the
state establish a new program called Catamount Health
that would provide subsidized health coverage to about
one third of the Vermonters currently without insurance
by 2010. The committee's bill also promotes better management
of the treatment of individuals with chronic diseases,"
writes Nancy Remsen of the Burlington Free Press.
The health reforms proposal would cost $132.2 million
over four years with half the funding coming from federal
coffers and calls for increasing the cigarette tax by
60 cents per pack to $1.79 beginning July 1. This increase
would raise about $11.7 million in the first year, with
the income expected to decline to $10.5 million a year
by 2010, notes Remsen.
Rep. David Allaire, R-Rutland, noted the cigarette
tax is a declining source of money and the special tobacco
payments run out in 2018. He told reporters, "Once
you offer a program such as this," he said, "it
is very difficult to take it back."
Steve Klein, the Legislature's chief fiscal officer,
said there was no assured plan for paying for any of
the state's subsidized health care programs after 2010
when the current five-year agreement with the federal
government expires. He told Remsen, "We will see
our whole health care world change." (Read
more)
Kentucky auditor calls on state
to take control of 'overspending' county jails
Kentucky should start planning to take control of 70
county jails in the next six to 10 years, State Auditor
Crit Luallen said yesterday.
At a news conference to release what she called the
first comprehensive audit of local jail spending, Luallen
told reporters rising costs threaten local budgets.
Standardized practices would allow the state to operate
jails for less than counties, although the amount is
not clear, writes Elisabeth J. Beardsley of The
Courier Journal. Luallen told reporters, "Kentucky
taxpayers are spending too much for our county jails."
Luallen said currently some counties lose money and
others profit by keeping 6,300 state inmates housed
in county jails. She said legislation and possibly a
state constitutional amendment would be necessary for
a state takeover, since jailers are constitutional officers,
notes Beardsley for the Louisville newspaper.
Kentucky Department of Corrections
Commissioner John Rees said he favors more uniform jail
management but supports local control. He said a state
takeover would be costly and raise questions about the
role of county jailers, who are elected officials. Rees
feels counties should keep some responsibility for the
thousands of jail inmates held on misdemeanor charges,
writes Beardsley (Read
more)
Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Jack
Brammer notes in his
story that Luallen's entire report can be found
on the Internet at http://www.auditor.ky.gov.
Mountains have big ears for
controversial counter-terrorism eavesdropping
The issue of the federal government's ability to eavesdrop
on Americans who may be having conversations with terrorists
overseas has sparked controversy, so the listening facility
deep in the West Virginia mountains has worldwide ramifications,
reports Dan Heyman of West Virginia Public Radio.
There are only two listening stations that pick up
this kind of data, notes Heyman -- in Yakima, Wash.,
and Pendleton County, W. Va. Chances are you won’t
see any signs of the facility if you go through the
tiny community of Sugar Grove, but its reach extends
throughout the world, according to journalist and author
James
Bamford, Heyman reports in a documentary
almost 30 minutes long. To listen, scroll down to Big
Ears in the Mountains and click on the speaker
icon. (For
story-related pictures, click here)
The Rural Blog reported earlier
this month on a story The Roanoke Times
did on the same facility, including a podcast
in which Assistant Managing Editor Dwayne Yancey speaks
with reporter Chris Winston about their story and how
it was reported. For an Editor & Publisher
article about podcasting, by Steve Outing, click
here.
Bush officials say journalists
can be prosecuted for having secret files
The Bush administration, in a court filing made public
this week, has said journalists can be prosecuted under
current espionage laws for receiving and publishing
classified information but that such a step "would
raise legitimate and serious issues and would not be
undertaken lightly."
"There plainly is no exemption in the statutes
for the press, let alone lobbyists like the defendants,"
Justice Department lawyers wrote in response to a motion
filed last month seeking to dismiss charges against
Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, former lobbyists
for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,"
writes Walter Pincus of The Washington Post.
The government said Rosen and Weissman, as lobbyists,
"have no First Amendment right to willfully disclose
national defense information ... we recognize that a
prosecution under the espionage laws of an actual member
of the press for publishing classified information leaked
to it by a government source, would raise legitimate
and serious issues and would not be undertaken lightly,
indeed, the fact that there has never been such a prosecution
speaks for itself," writes Pincus.
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American
Scientists, who first disclosed the government
filing on his Web
site, told Pincus, "The idea the government
can penalize the receipt of proscribed information,
and not just its unauthorized disclosure, ... characterizes
authoritarian societies, not democracies." (Read
more)
University of Tennessee explores
cultures by evolution of 'hillbilly' instrument
A new exhibit at the University of Tennessee's
McClung Museum displays 55 instruments that have been
picked and plucked around the world, from African villages
and American slave quarters to Victorian parlors and
the hills of southern Appalachia, where bluegrass music
was born, reports Duncan Mansfield of The Associated
Press.
Banjo maker Dave Ball, among those lending banjos to
the show, told Mansfield, "It is fascinating to
think of whose hands that instrument has been in."
Curators say that the exhibit, "Banjo: From Africa
to America and Beyond," is the largest collection
of pre-bluegrass banjos ever in the South and "brings
full circle what many thought was only as a 'hillbilly'
instrument," writes Mansfield.
The exhibit and occasional banjo performances runs
to April 30. It is free, but accepts donations, notes
Mansfield. Matt Morelock, 26, a cultural anthropologist,
told Mansfield, "It is arguably the most influential
joining of cultures ever." Morelock put the exhibit
together from collections in Toronto, Baltimore, New
York, Boston, Stockholm and the Museum of Appalachia
in Norris, Tenn. (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 23: Panel on coal at Mount
Holyoke College in Massachusetts
"Un/Natural Intervention: Changed Lands and Transformed
Lives" is a panel discussion that focuses on coal,
the communities that it affects, and the land from which
it comes. Panelists include Barbara Freese, attorney
and author of Coal: A Human History; Robin
Webb, a former miner who now serves as a state legislator
in Kentucky; and Hillary Hosta of Coal River
Mountain Watch, a West Virginia-based environmental
organization that illuminates the natural and unnatural
environmental aspects of mining.
The conversation is intended to honor the lives of
miners who died in recent disasters in West Virginia
and the many coal workers around the world who die each
year in mining-related accidents. It is scheduled for
Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of
the Art Building at Mount Holyoke College
in South Hadley, Mass. The event is free and open to
the public. Click
here for directions, here
for a map.
Feb. 24: Forum at UNC-Chapel
Hill on religion in the public schools
Several of the most prominent voices in the national
debate over religion in public schools will take part
in a daylong symposium on Feb. 24 sponsored by the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of
Law’s First Amendment Law Review. Admission to
the symposium (including a continental breakfast) at
the Carolina Inn, adjacent to the UNC campus, is free,
but a $25 fee applies for those who wish to have lunch
on-site. Pre-registration is required; information is
available at http://falr.unc.edu/register.html.
The symposium is certified for six hours of CLE credit
at a cost of $13.50 for registrants. Designed for attorneys,
educators and the public alike, the symposium will feature
panel discussions centering on three of the most pressing
issues related to religion in public schools today.
The keynote speaker will be William Van Alstyne, Lee
professor of law at the College of William and
Mary and a nationally regarded expert on constitutional
law. Speakers will discuss constitutional questions
associated with the teaching of intelligent design in
public school classrooms; the words "under God"
in the Pledge of Allegiance and government-sponsored
religious exercises in public schools; and the possible
reintroduction of religious symbols in classrooms in
light of a reconstituted Supreme Court.
Members of the legal, religious and education communities
will give remarks regarding these issues. Dr. Michael
Newdow, plaintiff and attorney in the cases challenging
inclusion of the words "under God" in the
Pledge of Allegiance, will be a panelist. Two prominent
scientists also will discuss the validity of the theories
of intelligent design and evolution.
Other panelists include Anthony R. Picarello Jr., president
and general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious
Liberty, which is trying to reverse a California
federal judge's injunction prohibiting recitation of
the Pledge of Allegiance in California public schools;
Dr. Scott Minnich, associate professor of microbiology
at the University of Idaho, who recently
testified as an expert witness in support of the teaching
of intelligent design in biology classes in a Pennsylvania
case where a federal judge rules such teaching unconstitutional;
and Richard B. Katskee, assistant legal director of
Americans United for Separation of Church and
State, who represented plaintiffs who opposed
such teaching. For a full list of expected panelists
and information on registration, visit http://falr.unc.edu/symposium.html.
Feb. 24: Entry deadline for
Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism
Now in its seventh year of honoring the high ethical
standards of print, broadcast, and new media journalism,
the Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism is seeking
entries by the Feb. 24 deadline.
Administered by the University of Oregon
School of Journalism and Communication, the Payne Awards
include $1,000 stipends each for the Individual, Organization
and Student categories in print, broadcast, and new
media, reports Editor & Publisher
in a staff report. (Read
more)
Last year’s winners included: The Denver
Post (adhered to established privacy policy
by not naming alleged rape victim even though competing
media did); Kevin Sites (responded thoughtfully, including
use of his blog, when his war footage generated negative
reaction); Jon Leiberman (special citation for speaking
out when he disagreed with his employer, even at the
risk of being fired); The State Press
(the staff of the Arizona State University
student newspaper worked well with administrators when
they and alumni reacted to a photo accompanying a story).
Other past winners include Jay Harris, KOMU-TV,
and Voice of America (2002); Paul DeMain
(2003); Virginia Gerst and The Bakersfield Californian
(2004). For more information, visit the Web site, payneawards.uoregon.edu,
by e-mail, payneawards@jcomm.uoregon.edu
or call 1-888-644-7989.
Feb. 25: Center for Rural Affairs
Annual Gathering in Kearney, Neb.
The Center for
Rural Affairs Annual Gathering will be held
in Kearney, Nebraska, on Saturday, February 25, 2006,
at the University of Nebraska-Kearney,
in the student center. For more information visit www.cfra.org/events.htm.
Feb. 27: 'Unlocking
Washington's File Cabinet' seminar in Austin, Tex.
Washington, for all its virtues and faults, is mainly
a giant file cabinet brimming with information. Through
the Internet and other means, this wealth of information
is now available to enrich the work of journalists everywhere
-- if you know where to find it! You can learn at a
day-long seminar Feb. 27 at the Austin American-Statesman,
presented by the National Press Foundation and
Congressional Quarterly.
The seminar will cover strategies for extracting information
from Washington. Seasoned journalists will share expertise
in tapping into online resources and cultivating political
and governmental contacts at the national levels. Participants
will get year-long access to Congressional Quarterly
databases.
Presenters include Jill Barshay, economics specialist
for CQ Weekly; James R. Carroll, Washington
correspondent for The Courier-Journal
of Louisville; Patricia Edmonds, formerly head of the
online news operation at National Public Radio
and a reporter for USA Today and the
Detroit Free Press; Isaiah J. Poole,
U.S. House leadership reporter for Congressional Quarterly;
David Rapp, Editor of Congressional Quarterly, and Nolan
Walters, program director for the National Press Foundation.
Sessions will focus on: Public Security: A to Z; Capitalizing
on Congressional Connections; Untangling the Social
Safety Net; The Business of Government is Business;
and Strategies for Tapping into Washington.
There is no cost, but reservations are required. Lunch
and breakfast will be served. To reserve a seat, e-mail
intern@nationalpress.org
or call 202-663-7286. Provide name, affiliation,
address, phone and e-mail.
Tuesday,
Feb. 21, 2006
Bidding opens
to build $451 million bioterrorism research lab in rural
America
Bidding opened Monday for a $451 million
federal "bio-agro-defense facility," and anti-terrorism
research lab, which would have to be located in a sparsely
populated area because of the nature of the research.
Kentucky and Tennessee political and academic
leaders have joined forces and have announced the first
bid to compete against other states, proposing the lab
be built near Somerset, Ky., about 25 miles east of
Interstate 75 at London. Backing the effort is U.S.
Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., who chairs the House Homeland
Security Appropriations Subcommittee. "About 400
workers, including more than 200 highly paid scientists,
would study some of the world's most dangerous pathogens
in the planned 500,000-square-foot lab," write
John Stamper, Greg Kocher and Bill Estep of the Lexington
Herald-Leader.
"Rogers said the Kentucky-Tennessee proposal is
the first to be made public but other states are expected
to vie for the lab," James Bruggers of The
Courier-Journal reports, quoting Tennessee
Gov. Phil Bredesen: "The competition will be fierce."
(Read
more)
The lab will research bioterrorist threats, foreign
animal diseases and other emerging public health threats.
The average salary at the facility would be about $74,000,
which Kentucky officials say would create $1.5 million
in state income tax revenue each year. The lab is expected
to attract scientists and technicians from around the
world, write Stamper, Kocker and Estep. (Read
more)
Wyoming tax-break bill to attract
synthetic-fuel plants criticized
"With some of the nation's largest energy companies
already eyeing Wyoming as a possible site for construction
of coal gasification and liquefaction plants, some people
question proposed legislation that would give firms
massive tax breaks on plant construction," writes
Ben Neary of The Associated Press.
Neary adds: "A House bill sponsored by the Joint
Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim
Committee calls for giving companies a tax exemption
on the sale or purchase of equipment used to construct
any of the new, high-tech plants. It's already cleared
two votes in the House, and could move into the Senate
as early as this week."
Wyoming is competing with Montana and other states
to net contracts for the plants. "The
U.S. Department of Energy and an international
coalition of energy companies announced last year that
they intend to construct a $1-billion coal gasification
plant. Called Futuregen, the plant
is proposed to serve as a model for future clean-coal
plants," writes Neary.
Dan Neal of the Equality State Policy Center,
a watchdog group, said builders of the plants
don't need tax breaks. "Our first argument is these
people aren't coming here to build these plants because
we're giving them a tax break; they're coming here because
Wyoming has easily accessible coal, and the transportation
system to move it," Neal told Neary. (Read
more)
Free speech, assembly: Sympathetic
bikers drown out funeral protesters
The Patriot Guard Riders are angered
by a Kansas-based fundamentalist church picketing military
funerals, and now the bikers are shielding families
from protesters and belting out patriotic chants, writes
Ryan Lenz of The Associated Press.
(Read
more)
Don Woodrick, the group's Kentucky captain, told Lenz,
"The most important thing we can do is let families
know that the nation cares." Across the nation,
Patriot Guard Riders number more than 5,000. Kurt Mayer,
the group's national spokesman, said, "These soldiers
are dying to protect our freedoms."
At least 14 states are considering laws aimed specifically
at the funeral protest group led by the Rev. Fred Phelps
of Topeka, Kan., who believes American deaths in Iraq
are divine punishment for a country that harbors homosexuals,
writes Lenz. Shirley Phelps-Roper, a daughter of Fred
Phelps and an attorney for Westboro Baptist
Church, told Lenz neither state laws nor the
Patriot Guard can silence their message.
New York Times provides update
on states' efforts to curb eminent domain
"In a rare display of unanimity that cuts across
partisan and geographic lines, lawmakers in virtually
every statehouse across the country are advancing bills
and constitutional amendments to limit use of the government's
power of eminent domain to seize private property for
economic development purposes," writes John M.
Broder of The New York Times. (Read
more)
This is an update of what was noted here on Feb. 7
in an item headlined, Forty states re-examining
eminent domain after Supreme Court decision. (Click
here for archives)
OBITUARY
'Cowboy at the Mike,' legendary
sports announcer Curt Gowdy dies at 86
Curt Gowdy, a native of rural Wyoming who defined sportscasting
for a generation, died yesterday at 86. "He was
the smooth voice of sports history, a welcome companion
who brought listeners Ted Williams' last home run, the
first Super Bowl and dozens of other dramatic moments,"
writes Howard Ulman of The Associated Press
in a tribute to Gowdy, pictured above on the Green River
in Wyoming.
Gowdy called 13 World Series, 16 All-Star baseball
games, numerous Rose Bowls and the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Through a rickety old radio and later through TV, Gowdy
transported generations of young sports fans in small
towns and cities to faraway places where sports giants
lived large and battled mightily. He began his play-by-play
career in subzero temperatures in 1944, sitting on a
box with his microphone on another box at a six-man
football game in Cheyenne, Wyo.
Gowdy worked as the Boston Red Sox
play-by-play announcer from 1951-1965, then did a 10-year
stint on NBC's "Game of the Week"
through 1975, writes Ulman. (Read
more) For a 2000 interview with Curt Gowdy, "ASA
Hall of Famer and Former Voice of ABC Sports,"
by Lou Schwartz, click
here. For comments about his death from AP, click
here. For a Wyoming peerspective, click
here. For a commentary by Gowdy fan Ron Walton of
The New River Valley [Va.] Today.com,
click
here.
Meth addiction taking its toll
on businesses in Arizona, California
"The illegal methamphetamine trade is linked to
increased property crimes, shoplifting rings and identity
theft. Businesses also are seeing lost productivity,
increased insurance costs and diminished worker performance,"
writes Mike Sunnucks of The Business Journal
of Phoenix.
Law enforcement and state officials -- including Arizona
Gov. Janet Napolitano and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew
Thomas -- say crystal meth is a leading cause of crime
in Arizona. Meth addicts often bankroll their habits
via credit card fraud, forgeries, commercial burglaries
and robberies, and they shoplift cold medicines and
other products used to cook the addictive chemical stimulant.
Glendale Police Department spokesman
Michael Pena told Sunnucks, "People will do anything
they need to do to get their fix." Addicts often
target their own employers, stealing computers or embezzling
money. Addicts and those who produce the illegal drugs
also are tied to the state's rising identify theft problem,
prostitution and violent behavior, reports Sunnucks.
(Read
more)
State Sen. Jackie Speier, D-San Francisco/San Mateo,
chair of the California Senate Select Committee on Methamphetamine
Abuse and Dr. Richard Rawson of the UCLA School
of Medicine, write in the San Jose
Business Journal, "Treatment assistance
for Californians addicted to meth is part of a solution,
but ... a vigorous and effective public information
campaign about the health risks of using meth is critical."
They call for cooperation from the Mexican government
and tougher smuggling laws. "The meth epidemic
is not going to go away anytime soon. It's time to wake
up," they write. (Read
more)
Ohio University students focusing
on area poverty, hunger through February
Appalachian poverty and hunger awareness are the main
focus of activities sponsored by Ohio University
student groups and local nonprofit organizations throughout
the rest of February.
"Appalachian Poverty and Hunger Awareness Month
is a movement hoping to educate Ohio University students
about the problems of poverty and hunger that plague
our neighbors in the area," writes Jen Lennon of
The Athens News.
Kelsey McCoy, president of OU's Students for
Peace and Justice, told Lennon, "In the
long term, we are searching for a way that students
can unite with community organizations to create sustainable
change." She said her organization's members "would
like to learn where the potential for sustainable change
in the economic environment lies in regard to our local
area."
Students
for Peace and Justice along with InterAct,
Positive Action and People
Might, a new local nonprofit organization,
have sponsored many events throughout the month. McCoy
told Lennon the group is conducting a petition drive
for an Ohio Constitutional Amendment to raise the minimum
wage. The petition is available at event movies. Tomorrow,
the group will air the final movie in their series,
Matewan, which dramatizes a historic coal workers'
strike, writes Lennon. (Read
more)
West Virginia '01 flood brings
waves of litigation, paperwork, headaches
On July 8, 2001, in less than six hours, more than
five inches of rain brought flood devastation to eight
counties in central and southern West Virginia. Now,
the Raleigh County Courthouse is being flooded with
paperwork and attorneys before one of West Virginia’s
largest mass litigation cases begins next month, writes
Audry Stanton for The Register-Herald
in Beckley.
Circuit Court Clerk Janice B. Davis told Stanton, “It’s
nothing we haven’t been able to handle so far.”
More than 5,000 plaintiffs claim some 400 defendants,
including coal and timbering companies, landowners,
lessors, railroads and gas companies involved in various
ways with the removal of natural resources, used their
land in a way that contributed to massive flood damage.
(Read
more)
Davis’ office manager, Paul Flanagan, told Stanton
the office has scanned and filed some 60,000 pages from
more than 6,000 documents for this case since the fall
of 2004. More than 20,000 pages were filed between Dec.
16, 2005, and Jan. 24. Flanagan told Stanton, “It’s
a massive undertaking and a unique undertaking for the
whole Raleigh County court system.” Davis’
office estimates it will be dealing with some 10,000
exhibits. "An extra 435 jurors have been subpoenaed
to the Raleigh County Armory — the courthouse
isn’t big enough to accommodate them all —
on March 6 for juror orientation," writes Stanton.
Plan to protect, relocate endangered
Florida panther reopens identity debate
The Florida panther roams what's left of the state's
cypress swamps and other wilds, and enjoys almost mythic
status in her native state. But questions about the
purity of the panther's bloodlines, and thus its identity
as an endangered species, have started an uproar.
Scientists believe there are only about 80 panthers
left in Florida, writes Peter Whoriskey of The
Washington Post. The draft recovery plan for
the Florida panther, issued by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, proposes to export some
out of state. Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia
and Alabama are being considered. Wildlife biologists
say the Florida panther roamed those states long ago,
and reintroducing it there could enable it to ward off
extinction. But some wary officials argue for all practical
purposes the Florida panther is identical to the cougar,
a far more common animal that lives in much of western
North America.
David Goad, deputy director of the Arkansas
Game and Fish Commission, who opposes bringing
the animal to Arkansas, told Whoriskey, "I'm not
even sure ... that a Florida panther, as a subspecies,
exists." But, David Maehr, an associate professor
of conservation biology at the University of
Kentucky who has written about the Florida
panther said, "I think the genetic tools have not
yet been discovered that will show what makes a Florida
panther a Florida panther. But those differences are
there, otherwise humans wouldn't be able to see them."
Maybe it takes a Kentucky Wildcat to classify a wild
cat. (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 23: Panel on coal at Mount
Holyoke College in Massachusetts
"Un/Natural Intervention: Changed Lands and Transformed
Lives" is a panel discussion that focuses on coal,
the communities that it affects, and the land from which
it comes. Panelists include Barbara Freese, attorney
and author of Coal: A Human History; Robin
Webb, a former miner who now serves as a state legislator
in Kentucky; and Hillary Hosta of Coal River
Mountain Watch, a West Virginia-based environmental
organization that illuminates the natural and unnatural
environmental aspects of mining.
The conversation is intended to honor the lives of
miners who died in recent disasters in West Virginia
and the many coal workers around the world who die each
year in mining-related accidents. It is scheduled for
Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of
the Art Building at Mount Holyoke College
in South Hadley, Mass. The event is free and open to
the public. Click
here for directions, here
for a map.
Feb. 24: Forum at UNC-Chapel
Hill on religion in the public schools
Several of the most prominent voices in the national
debate over religion in public schools will take part
in a daylong symposium on Feb. 24 sponsored by the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of
Law’s First Amendment Law Review. Admission to
the symposium (including a continental breakfast) at
the Carolina Inn, adjacent to the UNC campus, is free,
but a $25 fee applies for those who wish to have lunch
on-site. Pre-registration is required; information is
available at http://falr.unc.edu/register.html.
The symposium is certified for six hours of CLE credit
at a cost of $13.50 for registrants. Designed for attorneys,
educators and the public alike, the symposium will feature
panel discussions centering on three of the most pressing
issues related to religion in public schools today.
The keynote speaker will be William Van Alstyne, Lee
professor of law at the College of William and
Mary and a nationally regarded expert on constitutional
law. Speakers will discuss constitutional questions
associated with the teaching of intelligent design in
public school classrooms; the words "under God"
in the Pledge of Allegiance and government-sponsored
religious exercises in public schools; and the possible
reintroduction of religious symbols in classrooms in
light of a reconstituted Supreme Court.
Members of the legal, religious and education communities
will give remarks regarding these issues. Dr. Michael
Newdow, plaintiff and attorney in the cases challenging
inclusion of the words "under God" in the
Pledge of Allegiance, will be a panelist. Two prominent
scientists also will discuss the validity of the theories
of intelligent design and evolution.
Other panelists include Anthony R. Picarello Jr., president
and general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious
Liberty, which is trying to reverse a California
federal judge's injunction prohibiting recitation of
the Pledge of Allegiance in California public schools;
Dr. Scott Minnich, associate professor of microbiology
at the University of Idaho, who recently
testified as an expert witness in support of the teaching
of intelligent design in biology classes in a Pennsylvania
case where a federal judge rules such teaching unconstitutional;
and Richard B. Katskee, assistant legal director of
Americans United for Separation of Church and
State, who represented plaintiffs who opposed
such teaching. For a full list of expected panelists
and information on registration, visit http://falr.unc.edu/symposium.html.
Feb. 24: Entry deadline for
Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism
Now in its seventh year of honoring the high ethical
standards of print, broadcast, and new media journalism,
the Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism is seeking
entries by the Feb. 24 deadline.
Administered by the University of Oregon
School of Journalism and Communication, the Payne Awards
include $1,000 stipends each for the Individual, Organization
and Student categories in print, broadcast, and new
media, reports Editor & Publisher
in a staff report. (Read
more)
Last year’s winners included: The Denver
Post (adhered to established privacy policy
by not naming alleged rape victim even though competing
media did); Kevin Sites (responded thoughtfully, including
use of his blog, when his war footage generated negative
reaction); Jon Leiberman (special citation for speaking
out when he disagreed with his employer, even at the
risk of being fired); The State Press
(the staff of the Arizona State University
student newspaper worked well with administrators when
they and alumni reacted to a photo accompanying a story).
Other past winners include Jay Harris, KOMU-TV,
and Voice of America (2002); Paul DeMain
(2003); Virginia Gerst and The Bakersfield Californian
(2004). For more information, visit the Web site, payneawards.uoregon.edu,
by e-mail, payneawards@jcomm.uoregon.edu
or call 1-888-644-7989.
Feb. 25: Center for Rural Affairs
Annual Gathering in Kearney, Neb.
The Center for
Rural Affairs Annual Gathering will be held
in Kearney, Nebraska, on Saturday, February 25, 2006,
at the University of Nebraska-Kearney,
in the student center. For more information visit www.cfra.org/events.htm.
Feb. 27: 'Unlocking
Washington's File Cabinet' seminar in Austin, Tex.
Washington, for all its virtues and faults, is mainly
a giant file cabinet brimming with information. Through
the Internet and other means, this wealth of information
is now available to enrich the work of journalists everywhere
-- if you know where to find it! You can learn at a
day-long seminar Feb. 27 at the Austin American-Statesman,
presented by the National Press Foundation and
Congressional Quarterly.
The seminar will cover strategies for extracting information
from Washington. Seasoned journalists will share expertise
in tapping into online resources and cultivating political
and governmental contacts at the national levels. Participants
will get year-long access to Congressional Quarterly
databases.
Presenters include Jill Barshay, economics specialist
for CQ Weekly; James R. Carroll, Washington
correspondent for The Courier-Journal
of Louisville; Patricia Edmonds, formerly head of the
online news operation at National Public Radio
and a reporter for USA Today and the
Detroit Free Press; Isaiah J. Poole,
U.S. House leadership reporter for Congressional Quarterly;
David Rapp, Editor of Congressional Quarterly, and Nolan
Walters, program director for the National Press Foundation.
Sessions will focus on: Public Security: A to Z; Capitalizing
on Congressional Connections; Untangling the Social
Safety Net; The Business of Government is Business;
and Strategies for Tapping into Washington.
There is no cost, but reservations are required. Lunch
and breakfast will be served. To reserve a seat, e-mail
intern@nationalpress.org
or call 202-663-7286. Provide name, affiliation,
address, phone and e-mail.
Monday,
Feb. 20, 2006
Hours remain for Backyard Bird
Count to spot species, reporters to report
Here's a story that many reporters can go out and do
this afternoon: The annual four-day Great Backyard
Bird Count concludes today.
According to the event's Web
site, this activity "engages bird watchers
of all levels in counting birds and reporting their
results to create a mid-winter snapshot of the numbers,
kinds, and distribution of birds across the continent."
As the count progresses online, anyone with Internet
access can see what is being reported from their own
towns or anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. Participants
may also send in photographs. After the count, scientists
analyze the results and post summaries. The Great Backyard
Bird Count is managed by the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology and the Audubon
Society, with help from Wild
Birds Unlimited.
This Web
site provides information on how journalists can
find local contacts for the story. Thanks to Al Tompkins
of the Poynter Institute for the column
that reminded us of the count.
Florida gov. urges residents
to prep for bird flu attack, stock up on groceries
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush expects his state to be one of
the first places hit by a possible bird flu pandemic.
Bush said, "We have lots of international air
travel. We have cruise ships. We have interaction with
the rest of the world the likes of which is quite unique.
This is a really high priority for us, maybe more than
other states," reports Letitia Stein of the St.
Petersburg Times.
Bush kicked off a state summit on the topic. He urged
Floridians to be ready for a pandemic, and said after
eight hurricanes in two years, residents have a head
start in creating a "culture of preparedness,"
writes Stein. Bush called for every family to make a
household plan and stockpile groceries. "The federal
government has allocated $4.6 million for Florida to
start preparing. The World Health Organization
reports that bird flu has killed 91 people
since 2003," writes Stein. (Read
more)
"When avian flu is detected in a single chicken
on a farm, the entire flock -- often tens of thousands
of chickens -- must be killed. So, what to do with all
those dead birds?" asks William Wan of The
Washington Post. "Enter the humble compost
heap. ... After trying to burn the bodies (too expensive),
burying them (an environmental hazard) and trucking
them to rendering plants (risking further spread of
the disease), poultry experts believe that the safest
means of disposal might be to roll the dead birds into
a small hill and let the blistering heat of decomposition
burn away the disease inside." (Read
more)
Supreme Court to hear complaints
about wetland law curbing development
"More than half of the nation's streams and wetlands
could be removed from the protections of the federal
Clean Water Act if two legal challenges started more
than a decade ago by two Michigan developers are supported
by a majority of the newly remade Supreme Court,"
reports The New York Times.
John Rapanos, a developer in Michigan, is challenging
the government's authority over a wetland that he filled
with sand to make way for a shopping mall in Midland.
The second was brought by would-be condominium developer
June Carabell who applied to the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers for a permit to fill a wetland
in Chesterfield Township and was denied, writes Felicity
Barringer.
Oral arguments in the cases — the first before
the newest justice, Samuel A. Alito Jr. — are
set for Tuesday. "The central question is where
federal authority ends along the network of rivers,
streams, canals and ditches. Also at issue are who draws
those lines — and how — and who decides
what the Clean Water Act means by 'navigable waters'
and 'the waters of the United States,'" reports
Barringer.
The developers argue that the government is overreaching
by asserting jurisdiction in areas where it has no authority.
In response, the government says these cases could threaten
a decades-old regulatory system, Barringer reports.
(Read
more)
States give roads more priority,
turn to tolls; will rural roads get help?
Several states are planning big road projects to improve
their transportation systems, which are most wanting
in rural areas, but they are wondering where to find
funding.
"To fill the gap, states more than ever are turning
to toll roads, and in the latest twist, considering
leasing those roadways to private companies in exchange
for cash up-front. The latest example is Indiana, where
lawmakers are debating a proposal from Gov. Mitch Daniels
(R) to lease the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road to a consortium
of foreign companies for $3.85 billion. Chicago, Texas
and Virginia already have privately run toll ways,"
writes Eric Kelderman of Stateline.org.
The federal gas tax has lost one-third of its value
since 1993, when it was raised to the current rate of
18.4 cents a gallon, according to a study funded by
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Only
Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Carolina
and West Virginia have state gas taxes with any adjustments
for the price of fuel or inflation. "Gas tax revenues
will fall $1 trillion short of meeting transportation
needs by 2015, the Chamber's study predicts," reports
Kelderman.
A third of the nation's roads are substandard, and 27
percent of bridges are deficient or obsolete, reports
the American Society of Civil Engineers. Traffic congestion
costs an estimated $67.5 billion annually in wasted
time and fuel, according to the society. (Read
more)
Rural roads are in worse shape than those urban or
suburban areas. To find an earlier Rural Blog story
on rural roads in the Southeast being the nation's deadliest,
click
here. To read a comparison of how many miles motorists
travel on urban vs. rural roads, click
here.
A reminder: Farming ranks above
mining as the most deadly occupation
"Agriculture -- which includes farming, logging
and hunting -- is ahead of mining as the most deadly
occupation in the United States, accounting for 30.1
fatalities per 100,000 workers in 2004, according to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics,"
reports Greg Edwards of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
For a state-by-state breakdown of this data from the
Bureau for Labor Statistics, click
here.
Virginia's Farm Bureau safety manager,
Bruce Stone, has been compiling an unofficial record
of Virginia farm fatalities since 1994. Since then,
199 people have been killed working on Virginia farms,
including 83 who died from overturned tractors, the
leading cause of farm deaths. The use of a factory-built
roll bar or cage and a seat belt provide a 95 percent
or higher survival rate, Stone told Edwards.
This story is no longer on the Times-Dispatch Web site.
To read The Associated Press story,
click
here. For the Southeast Center for Agricultural
Health and Injury Prevention, click
here.
Ethanol fuels farming, but will
sources of corn be maxed out in a decade?
Ethanol, a form of alcohol added to gasoline, has been
touted as a way to reduce dependence on Middle Eastern
oil, and now it is giving some farmers a lucrative future.
"There are 34 new plants under construction, according
to the Renewable Fuels Association,
an industry trade group," reports Justin Blum of
The Washington Post. "Eight of
the 95 existing plants are expanding. And 150 more new
plants or expansions are in the planning stages."
However, the industry "expects that in a decade
it will max out available corn and grain crops, producing
15 billion gallons of ethanol a year from those sources."
In Missouri, ethanol plants are expected to buy a third
of the state's corn crop in a few years. The industry
hopes to increase production using cellulosic ethanol,
a slightly different type made of wood chips and corn
stalks. That process is seen as too expensive to be
competitive, but President Bush recently called for
research to improve it.
Also, there is debate over whether more energy is used
to grow corn and produce ethanol than it provides as
a fuel. But for farmers in places like South Dakota,
"It's just kind of a dream come true, really, for
us," David Diedrich, who farms 4,500 acres and
sells corn to the recently expanded VeraSun
Energy Corp. facility in Aurora. It has become
one of the country's largest ethanol plants, running
around the clock and churning out 120 million gallons
per year. That still is not enough to meet the demand
from oil companies that mix the additive with gasoline,
Blum reports. (Read
more)
Legalize industrial hemp? Ag
commissioners in four states say 'yes'
Agriculture commissioners from North Dakota, Massachusetts,
West Virginia and Wisconsin met Friday in Washington,
D.C., to support cultivating industrial hemp.
"The North Dakota Legislature has pushed for industrial
hemp research and production since 1997, but federal
drug laws greatly restrict efforts to cultivate the
crop. Industrial hemp resembles marijuana, an illegal
drug, but has only trace amounts of the chemical that
makes a pot smoker high. Industrial hemp is used to
make paper, clothing, cosmetics, rope and other products,"
reports The Associated Press.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials
informed the interested states that the process of legalizing
production would be complicated under federal law. Steve
Robertson, a DEA special agent, said his agency enforces
the law, instead of writing it, notes AP. "We're
very aware of the dangers of any controlled substance
or anything that smacks of a controlled substance,"
Robertson said. (Read
more)
Got milk? Dairy farmers may
soon become relics of the past in some places
Milk may make a body grow, but dairy farmers may soon
be hard to find in Kentucky, reports John Friedlein
of The [Elizabethtown, Ky.] News
Enterprise.
Friedlein writes, "Milk is going the way of tobacco,"
which has become a less viable crop without the federal
program of tobacco quotas and price supports. A little
more than a decade ago, more than 30 dairies operated
in Hardin County, Kentucky, but now just 17 remain,
he reports.
Across Kentucky, that number has slid from 6,000 in
1985 to fewer than 1,300 last year. Reasons for the
decline have included too many regulations, stagnant
milk prices, a lack of dependable workers, neighbors'
complaints and the demanding work load. (Read
more)
Glendale dairyman Larry Jaggers told Friedlein health
insurance drives many farmers to look for second jobs.
Jaggers serves on the new Kentucky Dairy Development
Council, funded by tobacco-settlement money
set aside for agricultural efforts. The council will
meet for the first time Feb. 28 in Cave City.
Wisconsin bill to ban teaching
of intelligent design sparks headlines, blogs
"Religious conservatives around the country are
up in arms over a Wisconsin bill that would ban the
teaching of intelligent design as science in the state's
public schools," reports Judith Davidoff of The
Capital Times in Madison, Wis.
Baptist
Press, the news service of the Southern
Baptist Convention, called the introduction
of the bill by Democratic Rep. Terese Berceau "an
unprecedented political move to protect evolution."
Meanwhile, the University of Wisconsin-Madison
scientists who helped draft the Wisconsin proposal see
it as a way to set a "standard for science education,"
writes Davidoff. Intelligent design proposes that biology
was shaped by an intelligent creator.
In an example of a reporter using new tools, Davidoff
reports the bill has bogged down blogs since its introduction
last week. A search on Google's new blog search provided
48 references to the bill.
William Dembski, a proponents of intelligent design,
is offering a $1,000 award to the first Wisconsin teacher
who would challenge the policy by teaching intelligent
design as science at a public school. On his Web
site, Dembski writes, "Wisconsin may well be
evolution's Waterloo," notes Davidoff. (Read
more)
Kentuckian, state say coal mine
floods cemetery; company denies it
"It's been more than a year since a state mining
investigator pinpointed an abandoned mine as the source
of the flooding on Clayton Little's property. But the
water keeps gushing out of the hillside behind his family
homestead, as Premier Elkhorn (Coal Co.) continues
to appeal a non-compliance order issued by the state,"
reports Rachel C. Stanley of the Appalachian
News-Express in Pikeville, Ky.
Little noticed in 2003 the land was often soggy, so
he filed a citizen's complaint. The Kentucky Environmental
and Public Protection Cabinet determined the
water was coming from an abandoned Premier Elkhorn mine.
The state ordered Premier Elkhorn to redirect the water
into the company's discharge system, but the company
appealed and its case won't be heard until August, writes
Stanley. Meanwhile, Little sued the company, which has
moved to dismiss the case. (Read
more)
Little may have known about the ability to file a citizen's
complaint without goign to court because he is a former
state legislator. The newspaper's story may inform other
citizens of that right.
Michigan minister recalls years
spent working in West Virginia coal mine
Working at the Olga Coal Co. from
1973 to 1980 so changed Michigan Rev. Dan L. Martineau
that he wrote a 146-page book, When I Was A Coal
Miner, released in July 2005.
"The book recalls his life as a young West Virginia
pastor who went to work in the mine to help support
his growing family. At the time, his small church could
only pay him $50 a month. A self-described 'city boy'
who grew up in Flint, Martineau already was out of familiar
surroundings at his church and town. But going to work
in the mine forced him into a whole new, often frightening
world. He faced darkness, dampness, rats, religious
ridicule and physical exhaustion while working miles
below or in the side of mountains," writes Claudia
Linsley of the Battle Creek [Mich.]
Enquirer.
The Olga Coal Co. shut down in 1985, but some of the
friendships Martineau formed remain alive. The people
of Appalachia have a special place in the minister's
heart, reports Linsley. (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 23: Panel on coal at Mount
Holyoke College in Massachusetts
"Un/Natural Intervention: Changed Lands and Transformed
Lives" is a panel discussion that focuses on coal,
the communities that it affects, and the land from which
it comes. Panelists include Barbara Freese, attorney
and author of Coal: A Human History; Robin
Webb, a former miner who now serves as a state legislator
in Kentucky; and Hillary Hosta of Coal River
Mountain Watch, a West Virginia-based environmental
organization that illuminates the natural and unnatural
environmental aspects of mining.
The conversation is intended to honor the lives of
miners who died in recent disasters in West Virginia
and the many coal workers around the world who die each
year in mining-related accidents. It is scheduled for
Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of
the Art Building at Mount Holyoke College
in South Hadley, Mass. The event is free and open to
the public. Click
here for directions, here
for a map.
Feb. 24: Forum at UNC-Chapel
Hill on religion in the public schools
Several of the most prominent voices in the national
debate over religion in public schools will take part
in a daylong symposium on Feb. 24 sponsored by the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of
Law’s First Amendment Law Review. Admission to
the symposium (including a continental breakfast) at
the Carolina Inn, adjacent to the UNC campus, is free,
but a $25 fee applies for those who wish to have lunch
on-site. Pre-registration is required; information is
available at http://falr.unc.edu/register.html.
The symposium is certified for six hours of CLE credit
at a cost of $13.50 for registrants. Designed for attorneys,
educators and the public alike, the symposium will feature
panel discussions centering on three of the most pressing
issues related to religion in public schools today.
The keynote speaker will be William Van Alstyne, Lee
professor of law at the College of William and
Mary and a nationally regarded expert on constitutional
law. Speakers will discuss constitutional questions
associated with the teaching of intelligent design in
public school classrooms; the words "under God"
in the Pledge of Allegiance and government-sponsored
religious exercises in public schools; and the possible
reintroduction of religious symbols in classrooms in
light of a reconstituted Supreme Court.
Members of the legal, religious and education communities
will give remarks regarding these issues. Dr. Michael
Newdow, plaintiff and attorney in the cases challenging
inclusion of the words "under God" in the
Pledge of Allegiance, will be a panelist. Two prominent
scientists also will discuss the validity of the theories
of intelligent design and evolution.
Other panelists include Anthony R. Picarello Jr., president
and general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious
Liberty, which is trying to reverse a California
federal judge's injunction prohibiting recitation of
the Pledge of Allegiance in California public schools;
Dr. Scott Minnich, associate professor of microbiology
at the University of Idaho, who recently
testified as an expert witness in support of the teaching
of intelligent design in biology classes in a Pennsylvania
case where a federal judge rules such teaching unconstitutional;
and Richard B. Katskee, assistant legal director of
Americans United for Separation of Church and
State, who represented plaintiffs who opposed
such teaching. For a full list of expected panelists
and information on registration, visit http://falr.unc.edu/symposium.html.
Feb. 24: Entry deadline for
Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism
Now in its seventh year of honoring the high ethical
standards of print, broadcast, and new media journalism,
the Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism is seeking
entries by the Feb. 24 deadline.
Administered by the University of Oregon
School of Journalism and Communication, the Payne Awards
include $1,000 stipends each for the Individual, Organization
and Student categories in print, broadcast, and new
media, reports Editor & Publisher
in a staff report. (Read
more)
Last year’s winners included: The Denver
Post (adhered to established privacy policy
by not naming alleged rape victim even though competing
media did); Kevin Sites (responded thoughtfully, including
use of his blog, when his war footage generated negative
reaction); Jon Leiberman (special citation for speaking
out when he disagreed with his employer, even at the
risk of being fired); The State Press
(the staff of the Arizona State University
student newspaper worked well with administrators when
they and alumni reacted to a photo accompanying a story).
Other past winners include Jay Harris, KOMU-TV,
and Voice of America (2002); Paul DeMain
(2003); Virginia Gerst and The Bakersfield Californian
(2004). For more information, visit the Web site, payneawards.uoregon.edu,
by e-mail, payneawards@jcomm.uoregon.edu
or call 1-888-644-7989.
Feb. 25: Center for Rural Affairs
Annual Gathering in Kearney, Neb.
The Center for
Rural Affairs Annual Gathering will be held
in Kearney, Nebraska, on Saturday, February 25, 2006,
at the University of Nebraska-Kearney,
in the student center. For more information visit www.cfra.org/events.htm.
Feb. 27: 'Unlocking
Washington's File Cabinet' seminar in Austin, Tex.
Washington, for all its virtues and faults, is mainly
a giant file cabinet brimming with information. Through
the Internet and other means, this wealth of information
is now available to enrich the work of journalists everywhere
-- if you know where to find it! You can learn at a
day-long seminar Feb. 27 at the Austin American-Statesman,
presented by the National Press Foundation and
Congressional Quarterly.
The seminar will cover strategies for extracting information
from Washington. Seasoned journalists will share expertise
in tapping into online resources and cultivating political
and governmental contacts at the national levels. Participants
will get year-long access to Congressional Quarterly
databases.
Presenters include Jill Barshay, economics specialist
for CQ Weekly; James R. Carroll, Washington
correspondent for The Courier-Journal
of Louisville; Patricia Edmonds, formerly head of the
online news operation at National Public Radio
and a reporter for USA Today and the
Detroit Free Press; Isaiah J. Poole,
U.S. House leadership reporter for Congressional Quarterly;
David Rapp, Editor of Congressional Quarterly, and Nolan
Walters, program director for the National Press Foundation.
Sessions will focus on: Public Security: A to Z; Capitalizing
on Congressional Connections; Untangling the Social
Safety Net; The Business of Government is Business;
and Strategies for Tapping into Washington.
There is no cost, but reservations are required. Lunch
and breakfast will be served. To reserve a seat, e-mail
intern@nationalpress.org
or call 202-663-7286. Provide name, affiliation,
address, phone and e-mail.
Friday,
Feb. 17, 2006
Rural America's health critical
to U.S. economy, John Deere chairman says
Robert Lane, the chairman and chief
executive officer of Deere & Co. of
Moline, Ill., a major farm-equipment manufacturer, said
at a national forum Thursday that rural America not
only has a role in feeding the nation and the world,
"but its health also is critical to ensuring a
vibrant U.S. economy in the future," writes Jennifer
DeWitt of the Quad-City Times of Davenport,
Iowa, in Deere's home metroplitan area.
Lane was among the speakers at the Department
of Agriculture’s 2006 Outlook Forum in
Arlington, Va. “The challenges faced around the
globe from increased global competition in food, fiber
and fuel markets require significant strategic investments
in rural America’s future,” he said. “I
would suggest to you that the challenges facing rural
communities require, from all of us here today, a level
of innovative thinking, risk-taking – and leadership.”
In a panel discussion, Lane said, “Rural development
must be more than a concern for rural communities. Rural
development must be a strategic national objective,
one supporting a global objective of economic prosperity.”
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in the keynote
speech to the conference, “A successful rural
America is key to the success of this nation, and taking
advantage of the forum gives us the opportunity to help
guide and lay the groundwork for the future.”
(Read
more)
Update: For a later but more
complete report on Lane's speech, from Delta
Farm Press, click
here.
Labor secretary seeks higher
mine-safety fines, says system 'outdated'
"As Kentucky lost its third coal miner this year
in an accident, U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao urged
lawmakers to increase the maximum fine for mine-safety
violations to $220,000 from $60,000," writes James
R. Carroll of The Courier-Journal.
"We are concerned that MSHA's current penalty structure
is outdated and may not always produce a sufficient
incentive for compliance," Chao said.
Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Whip Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky, told Congress that federal mine
regulators want to increase the minimum penalties and
said the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration
may examine how to improve the collection rate
of fines.
Chao said the 25-year-old regulations governing fines
need overhauling. Now, the minimum fine for a violation
is $60. She said the new minimum penalty would be set
during the rule-making process and MSHA also would examine
the collection of fines, writes Carroll.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., told Carroll that he
and Rep. Major Owens, D-N.Y., "will be watching
this process closely to ensure that it is not just empty
rhetoric intended to provide political cover. Miners
continue to die, so the administration must treat this
with urgency." (Read
more)
Kentucky newspaper lays out
details of coal operators' unpaid fines
Kentucky coal operators have not paid millions of dollars
in outstanding fines for health and safety violations,
including many that placed workers at risk, federal
records show, report Bill Estep, Jim Warren and Linda
J. Johnson for the Lexington Herald-Leader.
"For the 10-year period from January 1996 to last
month, the current assessment of fines against Kentucky
mining companies by the U.S. Mine Safety and
Health Administration is $40.3 million, but
only $24.6 million, or 61 percent, has been collected,"
according to a Herald-Leader analysis of MSHA's database.
The story was a deeper analysis of a phenomenon reported
earlier by other newspapers.
Neal Merryfield, the agency's current director of assessments,
said MSHA ultimately collects 80 percent of cash penalties
ordered against all mining companies. Merryfield said
given factors such as how MSHA can proceed under federal
debt-collection rules, "those really aren't bad
numbers for collections," write Estep, Warren and
Johnson. (Read
more) For a list of the Kentucky companies that
owe, and the amount of each fine, click
here.
Journalists review happenings,
or mishaps of covering Sago Mine disaster
A panel of experts made up of national,
regional and local reporters at West Virginia
University defended media coverage of the Sago
Mine disaster, pointing to the unique nature of the
story, the chaos of the event and the handling of information
by the mine's owner.
"In 'Searching for a Miracle: Media
Coverage of the Sago Mine Disaster,' national and regional
journalists came to WVU as part of the school's 'Festival
of Ideas' lecture series to talk about their experiences
in Tallmansville and sometimes defend their role in
spreading false information," writes Justin McLaughlin
of the Times West Virginian in Fairmont,
W.Va.
From the beginning, the journalists said they could
tell Sago wasn't going to be like other stories, writes
McLaughlin. Scott Finn, a statehouse reporter at the
Charleston Gazette, said, "There
was nobody in charge at Sago. We all just arrived and
camped out on people's lawns. Some bad things happened
to the families because of that." CBS
producer Mike Solmson said, "They (the families)
were our only source. There was no one source and nobody
seemed to be getting it right." And, Derek Rose,
a reporter from the New York Daily News,
said "It was almost like mass hysteria."
The Poynter
Institute's Kelly McBride moderated the
discussion. She said, "I want to acknowledge that
there's a lot of anger and frustration about how things
unfolded that night in the media. We're not going to
fix that. This isn't a witch hunt," writes McLaughlin.
(Read
more)
Kentucky museum plans underground
mine replica to attract tourists
The Owensboro Area Museum of Science and History
hopes to lure tourists and educate students with an
exhibit that features the Western Kentucky coal industry.
The museum would offer a short film about mining, recorded
voices of coal miners, hands-on displays and a trip
inside a replica underground mine, reports The
Associated Press based on a story in the Owensboro
Messenger-Inquirer. (Registration and
password required)
Burley Phelan, executive director of the Owensboro-Daviess
County Tourist Commission, told the newspaper,
"Something like that should bring people downtown.
People like museums with unusual exhibits." Museum
Director Jeff Jones told the Messenger-Inquirer the
exhibit will cost $500,000. No timetable has been set,
but Jones said the exhibit could be developed in as
soon as 18 months. The coal mine exhibit is one of three
being planned, AP reports. (Read
more)
Cheney
flap shows value of source development and 'smaller
news providers'
"Old-fashioned sourcing and tireless questioning
still work," writes Joe Strupp of Editor
& Publisher, citing lessons from Vice President
Cheney's shooting of a fellow hunter and his media approach
to the incident, which until yesterday was limited to
the Corpus
Christi Caller-Times, circulation 57,000.
The owner of the ranch where the shooting occurred,
Katharine Armstrong, "had known Caller-Times reporter
Jaime Powell for several years," Strupp writes.
"Powell, who had met the family during her time
at the smaller Alice Echo-News Journal,
had been the only reporter invited to the funeral of
Tobin Armstrong," a major political figure in South
Texas and Katharine Armstrong's father, last year.
More than 12 hours after the shooting, on Sunday morning,
after consulting with Cheney, Katharine Armstrong "called
Powell's cell phone. The veteran reporter, out of town
at the time, told me earlier this week that she made
a few calls on the run, headed back to the newsroom
and got in touch with fellow reporter Kathryn Garcia.
The two worked the phones and put out a Web story in
just a few hours, beating all competition. True, they
were the only ones who had been tipped off. But they
worked quickly to check it out -- rousing the White
House on a Sunday, no easy task, it turns out."
(Read
more)
The Caller-Times has stayed on the story, Strupp writes
today, noting "an interview with Sheriff Ramon
Salinas, who revealed that he did not go to the shooting
scene Saturday night because he wanted to spend time
with his family at an ongoing barbecue. 'That is not
unusual in a small town, Garcia, 25, said about the
sheriff's excuse. 'I think the questions are being answered.'
The sheriff, in that article, had explained why he did
not rush to the ranch that night. 'We've known these
people (witnesses) for years. They are honest and wouldn't
call us, telling us a lie,' Salinas said. 'I talked
to an eyewitness who said it was a definite accident.
We knew Mr. Whittington was being cared for.' . . .
For Garcia, the job of the Washington reporters is 'to
get to the bottom of things.' But, she added, 'I don't
understand why they are so upset about it.' She also
had a message for those larger news outlets who have
hinted that the Caller-Times should not have been the
first called with the story, and perhaps could not cover
it completely: 'Sometimes it seems that they think we
can't handle it, but we can and we did everything right.'"
(Read
more)
In his PressThink blog, New
York University journalism professor Jay Rosen
says, "Cheney did not make a mistake. He followed
procedure — his procedure. ... The people yelling
questions at Scott McClellan in the [White House] briefing
room, like the reporters in the Washington bureaus who
cover the president, are in Cheney’s calculations
neither a necessary evil, nor a public good. They are
an unnecessary evil and a public bad — ex-influentials
who can be disrespected without penalty."
Rosen also wrote, "Cheney took the opportunity
to show the White House press corps that it is not the
natural conduit to the nation-at-large, and it has no
special place in the information chain. Cheney does
not grant legitimacy to the large news organizations
with brand names who think of themselves as proxies
for the public and its right to know." (Read
more)
Rosen quotes a March 2005 editorial from The
Economist (emphasis ours): "Power is moving
away from old-fashioned networks and newspapers; it
is swinging towards, on the one hand, smaller news
providers (in the case of blogs, towards individuals)
and, on the other, to the institutions of government,
which have got into the business of providing news more
or less directly. Eventually, perhaps, the new world
of blogs will provide as much public scrutiny as newspapers
and broadcasters once did. But for the moment the shifting
balance of power is helping the government behemoth."
Sounds to us like those "smaller news providers"
need to lift their sights and tackle the behemoth from
time to time. One example to follow would be that of
Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.,
which recently stationed a reporter in Kentucky's state
capital to cover it for the chain's 12 papers in the
state.
Institute Web site has student
research papers on community journalism
Each fall semester, students in the
Community Journalism class at the University
of Kentucky, taught by Al Cross, the director
of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community
Issues, complete comprehensive projects on
a community media outlet, market, company or phenomenon.
Those projects are now available on the Institute's
Web site, under the Reports section.
The topics include: the promotional role of community
newspapers; Paxton Media Group and
its flagship paper in Paducah, Ky.; a new Northern Kentucky
niche paper called The Sunday Challenger;
the now-defunct Snitch, a crime-oriented
publication in Central Kentucky; la Voz,
a newspaper for Hispanic communities in Central Kentucky;
Army Times; and WYMT-TV in
Eastern Kentucky.
The Institute director teaches a class each semester
to help aspiring journalists practice and appreciate
rural and community journalism. These projects examine
alternative perspectives on what defines community journalism,
what challenges community journalists face in the changing
media world, and what other journalists are doing to
improve their communities.
The spring-semester class is a reporting project, this
semester on Covering Rural Elections. Last year, the
subject was The Future of Tobacco and Tobacco-Dependent
Communities, several stories of which are also posted
in the Reports section of the site, available by clicking
here or the button above.
Rhode Island newspaper's bureau
cuts sparks concerns about local presence
A Rhode Island newspaper's consolidation is yet another
example of what journalists and media experts fear is
the continued erosion of a vital local presence by the
many of the nation's newspapers, as they downsize and
retrench into metro areas, pressured by costs, competitiors
and investors.
The Providence Journal, recognized
for covering the state "like the morning dew,"
now has only three news bureaus, including one in Washington,
D.C., writes Ian Donnis of the Providence Phoenix.
Fifty years ago, it had 16 bureaus. After becoming
managing editor in 1923, Sevellon Brown opened bureaus
outside the city so reporters could reach stories in
20 minutes or less. "One wonders what Brown, who
went on to serve as the Journal’s publisher from
1942 to 1954, might think now," Donnis writes.
Providence Newspaper Guild president
John Hill told Donnis, “We’re concerned
that this is going to make it harder for our members
who [cover many of the communities outside of Providence]
to do their jobs as well as they’ve been doing
them, because you’re going to be further away.”
The Journal has had repeated cost cuts since the Dallas-based
Belo Corp. acquired it in 1997 and
has recently converted six reporter-intern positions
into permanent reporters, writes Donnis. Metro columnist
Bob Kerr told Donnis the office closings represent "a
further decline in our news coverage. We are not going
to cover those cities and towns as well as we used to,
because we are not going to be in them as much as we
used to." (Read
more)
Illinois publisher Tom Phillips
celebrates half a century at the same paper
In January 1956, there was a still-tenuous truce in
Korea, Dwight D. Eisenhower was beginning the last year
of his first term as president, and personal computers
were decades away -- and a young man named Tom Phillips
in Pana, Ill., began a news career that continues, more
than 50 years later.
"As a teenager at Pana High School in the late
1940s, Tom Phillips knew that he would like to become
a journalist," writes Rich Bauer, managing editor
of the Vandalia Leader-Union, for the
Illinois Press Association. In the
Navy, Phillips received the training that would prepare
him for a career in journalism. "And the interest
he showed in the newspaper business while on a tour
of the Pana News as a high school senior gave him the
opportunity to return to the town he has always loved,
in a career that he wanted as a youth," writes
Bauer. In January, Tom Phillips celebrated 50 years
at the Pana News-Palladium.
Near the end of his naval career in late 1955, Phillips
got a letter from an owner of the Pana News, asking
if Phillips was interested in returning to his hometown
to write the copy for a booklet the newspaper was publishing
to celebrate the community’s 100th birthday. Phillips
told Bauer, "So, on the third of January in 1956,
in the pre-dawn darkness at 7 o’clock, I came
to work for the Pana News."
Phillips told Bauer, "I’ll never forget
the first words he (Pauschert) spoke to me that day.
He said, 'I pay for an eight-hour day, and I expect
to get it.' He got his eight-hour days … and a
lot of 10s, 12s and 16s." After "four or five
years," Phillips was promoted to news editor, and
in 1966 became publisher. At his 50th anniversary celebration,
Phillips told Bauer, "This place is just like home.
The people here are one of the reasons that I still
look forward to getting up in the morning and showing
up here." (Read
more)
Former U.S. Marine's play about
Iraq draws protesters in rural county
A play written by a openly homosexual former U.S. Marine
about his experience in Iraq drew more than 18 times
as many protesters as it did audience members in Casey
County, Kentucky, last week.
Jeff Key performed "The Eyes of Babylon,"
based on a journal he kept while overseas, on Feb. 7
for 20 people at a community center. There were 369
protesters, from as far away as Tennessee, reports Linda
Carmicle of the Casey County News.
The play includes personal feelings about the war and
some same-sex feelings he had while serving. Key said,
"I'll soon be leaving Kentucky, but because of
the 360 or more who showed up to protest the play, hundreds,
if not thousands, more will now want to see my play."
Rev. Casey Davis, pastor of the Shady Grove
Separate Baptist Church, was the leader of
the protest.
"Forget what the Bible says, but (homosexuality)
goes against nature," Davis said. "The moral
make-up is for a man and woman to raise their children
in a Christian-like manner. That in itself should tell
people that homosexuality is wrong." Protestors
also took issue with Key's protest of the war. Davis
told Carmicle that every American should be supporting
troops.
"Key, 40, said he knew in his heart that those
against him were led to believe that 'The Eyes of Babylon'
was a play written to promote same-sex relationships,
but that isn't what it is about," Carmicle writes.
"He said he grew up in a rural area in Alabama
and he knew the risk of performing his play in a county
that is much like the one in which he was raised. Rural
areas are strong in their convictions and it was a risk
he took to challenge those convictions with his own
beliefs, he said." (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 24: Forum at UNC-Chapel
Hill on religion in the public schools
Several of the most prominent voices in the national
debate over religion in public schools will take part
in a daylong symposium on Feb. 24 sponsored by the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of
Law’s First Amendment Law Review. Admission to
the symposium (including a continental breakfast) at
the Carolina Inn, adjacent to the UNC campus, is free,
but a $25 fee applies for those who wish to have lunch
on-site. Pre-registration is required; information is
available at http://falr.unc.edu/register.html.
The symposium is certified for six hours of CLE credit
at a cost of $13.50 for registrants. Designed for attorneys,
educators and the public alike, the symposium will feature
panel discussions centering on three of the most pressing
issues related to religion in public schools today.
The keynote speaker will be William Van Alstyne, Lee
professor of law at the College of William and
Mary and a nationally regarded expert on constitutional
law. Speakers will discuss constitutional questions
associated with the teaching of intelligent design in
public school classrooms; the words "under God"
in the Pledge of Allegiance and government-sponsored
religious exercises in public schools; and the possible
reintroduction of religious symbols in classrooms in
light of a reconstituted Supreme Court.
Members of the legal, religious and education communities
will give remarks regarding these issues. Dr. Michael
Newdow, plaintiff and attorney in the cases challenging
inclusion of the words "under God" in the
Pledge of Allegiance, will be a panelist. Two prominent
scientists also will discuss the validity of the theories
of intelligent design and evolution.
Other panelists include Anthony R. Picarello Jr., president
and general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious
Liberty, which is trying to reverse a California
federal judge's injunction prohibiting recitation of
the Pledge of Allegiance in California public schools;
Dr. Scott Minnich, associate professor of microbiology
at the University of Idaho, who recently
testified as an expert witness in support of the teaching
of intelligent design in biology classes in a Pennsylvania
case where a federal judge rules such teaching unconstitutional;
and Richard B. Katskee, assistant legal director of
Americans United for Separation of Church and
State, who represented plaintiffs who opposed
such teaching. For a full list of expected panelists
and information on registration, visit http://falr.unc.edu/symposium.html.
Feb. 24: Entry deadline for
Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism
Now in its seventh year of honoring the high ethical
standards of print, broadcast, and new media journalism,
the Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism is seeking
entries by the Feb. 24 deadline.
Administered by the University of Oregon
School of Journalism and Communication, the Payne Awards
include $1,000 stipends each for the Individual, Organization
and Student categories in print, broadcast, and new
media, reports Editor & Publisher
in a staff report. (Read
more)
Last year’s winners included: The Denver
Post (adhered to established privacy policy
by not naming alleged rape victim even though competing
media did); Kevin Sites (responded thoughtfully, including
use of his blog, when his war footage generated negative
reaction); Jon Leiberman (special citation for speaking
out when he disagreed with his employer, even at the
risk of being fired); The State Press
(the staff of the Arizona State University
student newspaper worked well with administrators when
they and alumni reacted to a photo accompanying a story).
Other past winners include Jay Harris, KOMU-TV,
and Voice of America (2002); Paul DeMain
(2003); Virginia Gerst and The Bakersfield Californian
(2004). For more information, visit the Web site, payneawards.uoregon.edu,
by e-mail, payneawards@jcomm.uoregon.edu
or call 1-888-644-7989.
Feb. 25: Center for Rural Affairs
Annual Gathering in Kearney, Neb.
The Center for
Rural Affairs Annual Gathering will be held
in Kearney, Nebraska, on Saturday, February 25, 2006,
at the University of Nebraska-Kearney,
in the student center. For more information visit www.cfra.org/events.htm.
Feb. 27: 'Unlocking
Washington's File Cabinet' seminar in Austin, Tex.
Washington, for all its virtues and faults, is mainly
a giant file cabinet brimming with information. Through
the Internet and other means, this wealth of information
is now available to enrich the work of journalists everywhere
-- if you know where to find it! You can learn at a
day-long seminar Feb. 27 at the Austin American-Statesman,
presented by the National Press Foundation and
Congressional Quarterly.
The seminar will cover strategies for extracting information
from Washington. Seasoned journalists will share expertise
in tapping into online resources and cultivating political
and governmental contacts at the national levels. Participants
will get year-long access to Congressional Quarterly
databases.
Presenters include Jill Barshay, economics specialist
for CQ Weekly; James R. Carroll, Washington
correspondent for The Courier-Journal
of Louisville; Patricia Edmonds, formerly head of the
online news operation at National Public Radio
and a reporter for USA Today and the
Detroit Free Press; Isaiah J. Poole,
U.S. House leadership reporter for Congressional Quarterly;
David Rapp, Editor of Congressional Quarterly, and Nolan
Walters, program director for the National Press Foundation.
Sessions will focus on: Public Security: A to Z; Capitalizing
on Congressional Connections; Untangling the Social
Safety Net; The Business of Government is Business;
and Strategies for Tapping into Washington.
There is no cost, but reservations are required. Lunch
and breakfast will be served. To reserve a seat, e-mail
intern@nationalpress.org
or call 202-663-7286. Provide name, affiliation,
address, phone and e-mail.
Thursday,
Feb. 16, 2006
Cheney flap shows value of source
development and 'smaller
news providers'
"Old-fashioned sourcing and tireless questioning
still work," writes Joe Strupp of Editor
& Publisher, citing lessons from Vice President
Cheney's shooting of a fellow hunter and his media approach
to the incident, which until yesterday was limited to
the Corpus
Christi Caller-Times, circulation 57,000.
The owner of the ranch where the shooting occured,
Katharine Armstrong, "had known Caller-Times reporter
Jaime Powell for several years," Strupp writes.
"Powell, who had met the family during her time
at the smaller Alice Echo-News Journal,
had been the only reporter invited to the funeral of
Tobin Armstrong," a major political figure in South
Texas and Katharine Armstrong's father, last year.
More than 12 hours after the shooting, on Sunday morning,
after consulting with Cheney, Katharine Armstrong "called
Powell's cell phone. The veteran reporter, out of town
at the time, told me earlier this week that she made
a few calls on the run, headed back to the newsroom
and got in touch with fellow reporter Kathryn Garcia.
The two worked the phones and put out a Web story in
just a few hours, beating all competition. True, they
were the only ones who had been tipped off. But they
worked quickly to check it out--rousing the White House
on a Sunday, no easy task, it turns out." (Read
more)
In his PressThink blog, New
York University journalism professor Jay Rosen
says, "Cheney did not make a mistake. He followed
procedure — his procedure. ... The people yelling
questions at Scott McClellan in the [White House] briefing
room, like the reporters in the Washington bureaus who
cover the president, are in Cheney’s calculations
neither a necessary evil, nor a public good. They are
an unnecessary evil and a public bad — ex-influentials
who can be disrespected without penalty."
Rosen also wrote, "Cheney took the opportunity
to show the White House press corps that it is not the
natural conduit to the nation-at-large, and it has no
special place in the information chain. Cheney does
not grant legitimacy to the large news organizations
with brand names who think of themselves as proxies
for the public and its right to know." (Read
more)
Rosen quotes a March 2005 editorial from The
Economist (emphasis ours): "Power is moving
away from old-fashioned networks and newspapers; it
is swinging towards, on the one hand, smaller news
providers (in the case of blogs, towards individuals)
and, on the other, to the institutions of government,
which have got into the business of providing news more
or less directly. Eventually, perhaps, the new world
of blogs will provide as much public scrutiny as newspapers
and broadcasters once did. But for the moment the shifting
balance of power is helping the government behemoth."
Sounds to us like those "smaller news providers"
need to lift their sights and tackle the behemoth from
time to time. One example to follow would be that of
Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.,
which recently stationed a reporter in Kentucky's state
capital to cover it for the chain's 12 papers in the
state.
Institute Web site has student
research papers on community journalism
Each fall semester, students in the
Community Journalism class at the University
of Kentucky, taught by Al Cross, the director
of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community
Issues, complete comprehensive projects on
a community media outlet, market, company or phenomenon.
Those projects are now available on the Institute's
Web site, under the Reports section.
The topics include: the promotional role of community
newspapers; Paxton Media Group and
its flagship paper in Paducah, Ky.; a new Northern Kentucky
niche paper called The Sunday Challenger;
the now-defunct Snitch, a crime-oriented
publication in Central Kentucky; la Voz,
a newspaper for Hispanic communities in Central Kentucky;
Army Times; and WYMT-TV in
Eastern Kentucky.
The Institute director teaches a class each semester
to help aspiring journalists practice and appreciate
rural and community journalism. These projects examine
alternative perspectives on what defines community journalism,
what challenges community journalists face in the changing
media world, and what other journalists are doing to
improve their communities.
The spring-semester class is a reporting project, this
semester on Covering Rural Elections. Last year, the
subject was The Future of Tobacco and Tobacco-Dependent
Communities, several stories of which are also posted
in the Reports section of the site, available by clicking
here or the button above.
Predominantly rural 'redneck'
faithful fear NASCAR is ashamed of roots
NASCAR, with roots in running bootleg
liquor in hot cars over country roads, has grown into
a sporting and economic giant. Its unsophisticated beginnings
have blossomed into a mega-marketing bonanza looking
to expand its base -- at, some fans say, the expense
of those who brought them to the dance.
NASCAR President Mike Helton recently told reporters,
"We believe strongly that the old Southeastern
redneck heritage that we had is no longer in existence,"
reports The Charlotte Observer.
Helton's comment riled Southern racing fans, some of
whom wondered if NASCAR is taking its devotees for granted
or has become publicly being embarrassed by them. "It's
a new strain of the old tension between corporate NASCAR
and its working-class fan base. And with the 2006 season
beginning this week, it's an illustration of the sensitivities
the sport still navigates nearly seven years after announcing
a significant diversity effort," writes the Observer's
writes Peter St. Onge.
Ruth Payne of Greer, S.C., a race fan for five decades,
told St. Onge, "If it weren't for us rednecks,
NASCAR would not be where it is today. [It] has become
too commercialized for this redneck, so I will just
keep my redneck butt home."
Lowe's Motor Speedway President H.
A."Humpy" Wheeler sympathized with Helton,
whom he noted is from the "hardly cosmopolitan"
town of Bristol, Tenn. Wheeler said Helton didn't intend
to malign his own roots. NASCAR has an audience of 75
million, and eight of NASCAR's top 10 TV ratings markets
last year were in the South, writes St. Onge. (Read
more)
Local governments,
telecoms battle over who provides broadband
access
Broadband is coming of age in more rural
areas as officials view it as an economic must. Many
fear being left behind as many American towns were during
the Interstate boom of the 1950s and 1960s.
"Bardwell, Ky., ... is so isolated
that only in the 1990s were its homes upgraded to private
phone lines from a shared party line. Valerie Davis,
a Bardwell resident who suffers from ... multiple sclerosis,
wanted to telecommute on her worst days to her job as
an information systems analyst at a hospital 35 miles
away, but found her dial-up connection unreliable,"
writes Joseph Popiolkowski of Stateline.org.
Davis turned to Connect
Kentucky, a statewide high-speed Internet
initiative, and a satellite provider extended broadband
access to her farm.
While Kentucky has been a model of public-private cooperation
in promoting high-speed Internet connections, other
state and local governments have been locked in battles
over the issue. Jim Baller, who represents a number
of community broadband interests, told Popiolkowski
there’s “a crazy quilt of different laws
in different places.”
The American Public Power Association
reports that as of 2005, 14 states restricted local
governments' efforts to deploy public communications.
Those in Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska,
Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin face strict
barriers to entry through administrative and legal hurdles,
writes Popiolkowski. (Read
more)
In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry recently announced
plans to bring high-speed Internet to a number of rural
areas, reports KBTV Channel 4 in Port
Arthur-Beaumont. (Read
more)
National Association
of Counties plans to attack meth, a cheap high
The National Association of Counties
has begun quantifying the effects of methamphetamine
on communities nationwide by educating public and county
officials and pushing for national legislation to deal
with the epidemic, reports Kim Skornogoski of the Great
Falls Tribune.
Jim Mulder, executive director of the Minnesota
Association of Counties, told more than 100
Montana officials and community members at a recent
conference, "This stuff is absolutely the worst
stuff I've been around. In Minnesota, [as in most places]
I can get high on meth cheaper than I can get drunk."
The Department of Justice has awarded
NACo a $345,000 grant to fund meth research, including
studies on treatment and the financial impact felt by
emergency rooms. NACo President Bill Hansell told conferees
three things will cut meth use: The government must
close international markets for pseudoephedrine, a key
meth ingredient; multi-jurisdictional drug task force
grants must be restored; and local and national government
agencies need to look at extending treatment.
Mulder said addicts crave meth for months, even years,
after use and that traditional 12-step or 6-month programs
won't help them. Cascade County meth task force member
Kris Dunn said in reaction to Hansell's presentation,
"We will not win this war on drugs until people
realize that drug use is not a victimless crime,"
writes Skornogoski. (Read
more)
Mementos, interviews,
evocative layout bring end of the telegram home
Showing how smaller newspapers can localize
national stories, the Kentucky New Era
of Hopkinsville (circulation 11,000) published a feature
about the beginning, middle, and recent end of the telegram.
In the early 20th Century, the telegram was the quickest
and most reliable way to get information across distance
in a time when long-distance telephony was expensive.
When Western Union ended telegram
service Jan. 27, few people noticed, wrote New Era reporter
Jennifer Brown.
For most of the century, a telegram meant something
as joyous as the birth of a daughter, or as sorrowful
as the death of a son in war overseas. Brown wrote:
"A telegram almost always meant that someone had
died or that there was some cause for celebration --
a birth, a wedding, a job promotion." (Read
more)
Brown's story reported when the first telegraph line
came to Hopkinsville (1858) and the names of telegraph
agents, and was accompanied by photos of residents with
old telegrams, a Western Union sign and a layout with
block, all-caps type like that used in telegram, with
the headline "End of an Era. Stop."
U.S.
Senate panel reviews safety technology for underground
coal mines
Technology designed to help save trapped miners, including
text-messaging systems and tracking devices that are
not widely used in U.S. mines, was shown off on Capitol
Hill yesterday.
"Lawmakers on the Senate
Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee
also got a look at the one-hour oxygen packs miners
do rely on. There was broad agreement that the government
ought to require operators to store extra oxygen in
mines or outfit miners with longer-lasting packs,"
writes Nancy Zuckerbrod of The Associated Press.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration
has announced a temporary emergency rule that would
require coal-mine operators to provide extra air packs.
Several equipment manufacturers called for regulations
clarifying what new technology should be used and asked
for more development money.
Bruce Watzman, the top safety expert at the National
Mining Association, said he wants the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
to boost its mine safety research and development and
the $30 million the agency spends annually is not enough.
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. said, "As legislators
responding to a crisis, we want to do whatever we can
do to make mining safer, but we want to do it in an
informed way and not a reactionary way." (Read
more)
Eastern Kentucky coal-mine operator
owes $800,000 in federal fines
Federal records show that mine operator Harold K. Simpson
and his companies owe the federal government $807,975
in unpaid penalties for violating mine-safety laws.
The Eastern Kentucky operator "owes more than
is owed by Kentucky mine operator Stanley Osborne, whom
federal mine safety regulators sued a week ago for alleged
nonpayment of more than $80,000 in fines since 2003,
federal records show," writes James R. Carroll
of The Courier-Journal. All the fines
were less than $10,000, the threshold Carroll used for
a story on unpaid fines several days ago.
Tony Oppegard, a former general counsel to Kentucky's
mine-safety agency, told Carroll, "What if you
had 2,500 parking tickets or 2,500 speeding tickets?
You wouldn't have a car anymore." Kentucky
Coal Association President Bill Caylor told
Carroll, "There's no excuse for that." (Read
more)
This morning, miner Tim Caudill died in a roof fall
near Hazard, Ky., bringing to three the number of miners
killed in the state this year and taking the national
death toll to 20. For an AP story, click
here.
Former miner alleges forced
falsification of coal dust data, seeks damages
A West Virginia lawsuit may provide
fresh evidence that coal companies falsified dust samples
over three decades -- a double threat to the lives of
those working underground, from explosions to chronic,
often fatal lung ailments.
"Reggie Philyaw worked for Eastern
Associated Coal Corp. for 28 years. Philyaw
says he helped the company fake the tests ... meant
to protect miners from dangerous levels of coal dust.
Now, Philyaw says the experience caused his mental breakdown,
and he is suing Eastern over his depression and anxiety
disorder," writes Karl Ward Jr. of The
Charleston Gazette.(Read
more)
In the early 1990s, "Peabody Coal,
Eastern’s parent company, agreed to plead guilty
to three counts of tampering with dust tests, pay a
$500,000 fine, and show ... how its employees had tampered
with the cassettes," Ward notes. Federal mine-safety
laws limit dust in mines, partly to reduce miners' chances
of getting black-lung disease, "but at least partly
because of industry cheating on dust sampling, the law
has fallen far short of its goal of eliminating the
disease. In 1998, a series in The (Louisville)
Courier-Journal documented that federal
regulators knew for years about widespread cheating,
but did little about it."
Hungry
for jobs, W.Va. mining-academy recruits head off to
coal mines
A recent string of disasters and deaths in the coal
industry doesn't seem to have dampened the desire by
many to fill the thousands of open mining jobs nationwide,
according to enrollment, and enthusiasm at one mining
training academy in Core, W.Va.
"Coal, once derided as a dirty fuel, is hot. Demand
for coal to fuel power plants is growing as oil and
natural gas prices soar. So is demand for miners. After
more than 20 years of dwindling opportunity, miners'
prospects are picking up," writes Tom Vanden Brook
of USA Today.
The 17 current students at West Virginia University's
Academy of Mine Training and Energy Technology
talk about the disasters that have killed 16 coal miners
in the state since their class began. But the promise
of family-sustaining wages — maybe $12 an hour
to start, but rising quickly to an average of $64,000
a year — is enough to draw a new generation of
West Virginians underground, notes Brook.
Coal mining student Ryan Boyd told Brook he's weighed
the dangers but he considers the risks minimal and said,
"You're just as likely to get killed on the highway."
Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National
Mining Association, told Brook the nation needs
50,000 new coal miners to replace retiring miners over
the next 10 years. (Read
more)
Ky. bill targets Wal-Mart costs
to state health care, but appears doomed
A Kentucky legislative committee took retailing giant
Wal-Mart to task yesterday, approving
legislation to force the world's largest retailer to
take better care of the 32,249 people it employs in
the state.
The bill would require employers with more than 25,000
workers to spend at least 10 percent of their payroll
costs on health insurance. The House Banking and Insurance
Committee passed it 15-4, "but several legislators
who voted for the bill said they still have serious
concerns and might vote differently when the measure
comes before the full House," writes John Stamper
of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Even if the bill passes the Democratic-controlled House,
it faces tougher sledding in the Republican-controlled
Senate. Democratic Rep. J. R. Gray of Benton, a co-sponsor
and strong ally of unions that are pushing such bills
in many states, told Stamper, "It has a rough,
bumpy road ahead, to say the least."
Wal-Mart has been lambasted for its health insurance
policies, which critics say cause many of its employees
and their families to rely on state-sponsored health
care plans or go uninsured. The measure appears to affect
only Wal-Mart. The company has 38 stores, two distribution
centers and seven Sam's Club stores in Kentucky, which
pay an average wage of $9.94 an hour. (Read
more)
Feds say FOI requests prompted
release of farmers' Social Security numbers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture
yesterday announced it had accidentally released the
Social Security and tax identification numbers of 350,000
tobacco farmers, reports The Associated Press.
The agency said the data was inadvertently released
in response to Freedom of Information Act requests about
tobacco-buyout payments to growers. The information
went to eight different people or groups. Those who
received the information agreed not to disclose it,
to destroy any copies and to return computer disks containing
the data, officials said. (Read
more)
"The department is notifying growers who were
affected and encouraging them to get copies of their
credit reports to make sure their credit records have
not been compromised," AP reports. People can request
free copies of their credit reports at Annual
Credit Report.Com or
through the Federal Trade Commission's
Web
site. Most buyout money is going to North Carolina,
Kentucky and Tennessee.
Ken Hart dies at 88 after a
long and varied career in New York and Kentucky
Kenneth W. Hart died Sunday at his home in Frankfort,
Ky., after a long illness. He was 88. Hart was a reporter
for The New York Times
who also worked in New York theatre and moved into radio.
He founded the Kentucky Coal Journal, an
industry newspaper. He was former co-owner and manager
of WFKY-AM in Frankfort and general
manager of WLAP-AM in Lexington and
WYND in Sarasota, Fla.
His body was cremated and his ashes will be interred
in the Frankfort Cemetery. A memorial service was scheduled
for 1 p.m. today at Rogers Funeral Home
in Frankfort. Memorial gifts may be sent to Hospice
of the Bluegrass, Franklin County, Frankfort
KY 40601.
Longtime environmental lawyer-lobbyist Tom FitzGerald
of the Kentucky Resources Council paid
tribute to Hart: "Throughout the late '70s and
'80s, as Kentucky grappled with the economic, political
and cultural changes wrought by the implementation of
the state surface mining program and the bust-and-boom
cycles of the times, Ken's was a voice for the small
coal operators. We at KRC will remember his good humored
editorial ribbing (which was often at our expense),
his thoughtful observations on the political process,
his varied talents (including authoring of more than
one Tin Pan Alley ditty), his advocacy on behalf of
persons with mental retardation, and his friendship.
In his memory we rededicate ourselves to the task at
hand."
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 17-18: Rails to Trails
and Greenway Conference in Lexington, Ky.
The Kentucky Rails to Trails Council invites
you to the 2006 Trails and Greenway Conference in Lexington
on Feb. 17-18. for more information about both the Council
and the Conference, visit www.kyrailtrail.org.
Feb. 17-18: Ky. Watershed Watch
for Upper Green, Upper Cumberland
The conference for the Upper Green River Watershed
will be held Friday in Bowling Green at the Western
Kentucky University Faculty House. The meeting
for the Upper Cumberland River will be held Saturday
at the Center for Rural Development in
Somerset. For more information, and to register online,
go to http://kywater.org/watch
and click on your watershed of choice on the map.
Kentucky Watershed Watch has more
than 3,000 members who give their time in an effort
to improve waterways through a coordinated campaign
of water quality monitoring, skills development and
advocacy. More than 300 organizations are contributing
to the effort by providing volunteers, staff, technical
assistance, instruction and financial resources, and
more than 100 leaders organized in eight local Watershed
steering committees carry out the work of the project.
Feb. 22, March 22: E-Scrap workshops
in Kentucky on electronic trash
The Kentucky Division
of Waste Management is sponsoring two workshops
on managing e-scrap (electronic appliances): one at
General Butler State Resort Park in
Carrollton on Feb. 22; and the other at Natural
Bridge State Resort Park in Powell County on
March 22. The workshops are free but registration is
required. For more information and to register on-line,
go to www.waste.ky.gov.
Wednesday,
Feb. 15, 2006
Small daily exposes California
congressman's taxpayer-funded parks tour
In a story that shows how small papers can make a big
difference as watchdogs on elected officials, the Tracy
Press (circulation 9,800) in San Joaquin County,
Calif., reports that U.S. House Resources Committee
Chairman Richard
Pombo, R-Calif., took his family around the West
in a recreational vehicle for two weeks at taxpayer
expense. Bigger papers then jumped on the story.
Documents obtained by the Press show taxpayers covered
most of his expenses, reporter Nick Juliano wrote. Pombo
was reimbursed $4,935.87 to rent the RV. Committee spokesman
Brian Kennedy told Juliano that House rules dictate
“official travel may not be for personal …
purposes,” but allows for members of Congress
to bring family members along on official trips. Pombo
said he took the trip to visit national parks, an area
of committee responsibility.
Larry Noble, the executive director of the Center
for Responsive Politics, told the Press that
the trip gives the impression “that members of
Congress are out of touch and feel entitled to things
the average person doesn’t get,” even though
he may have been doing some official business. Noble
told Juliano, “I understand what he’s saying
… but it does look like a family vacation, and
the taxpayer has a right to ask, ‘Is this the
best way to do this?’”
(Read
more)
Telecom lobby group drops opposition
to government-provided wireless
A big telecommunications lobby has dropped its opposition
to competition from government-sponsored, unlicensed
wireless ventures. The shift by CTIA,
which started life as the Cellular Telephone Industry
Association, illustrates changing alliances in the field
of municipal broadband, reports Technology Daily.
"What has changed is that we reflect our members
and the industry. As our technology and our world has
evolved, licensed and unlicensed [wireless] converge,
and our members are a part of it," Senior Vice
President Michael Altschul told reporter Drew Clark.
He noted that Cingular Wireless has
bid on providing unlicensed Wi-Fi service in San Francisco,
and T-Mobile is offering Wi-Fi in Starbucks
coffee shops and thousands of other "hot spots"
to show that there are few companies "without a
plan to deploy hybrid services." (Read
more)
In many rural areas where companies have not provided
broadband, governments have stepped in. Some state legislatures
have prohibited that, and Congress is debating the issue.
Free preschool plan in rural
area may offer preview for rest of California
A free public preschool that opened last fall in Nuevo
in Riverside County near Perris, Calif., among the state's
first so-called universal public preschools, will be
replicated across the state if voters approve a June
ballot initiative that would tax the wealthy to fund
preschool for all children.
Nuview Union School District Supt.
Jack O'Connell told Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles
Times, "I really believe that preschool
will be the great equalizer in terms of educational
opportunity for students. We know the starting line
is not the same for all students…. We have an
achievement gap in California. If we wait to address
it until high school, it's too late."
Kindergarten teachers who noted that preschool students
had academic and social advantages pushed officials
in the 1,550-student district to create the universal
preschool. Kindergarten teacher Brenda Armstrong told
Mehta, "The kids coming from preschool have a strong
disposition where they want to learn and take the next
step and take that risk to get to the next level….
Kids who had preschool experience were empowered by
their knowledge."
The Nuevo preschool costs about $400,000 a year and
us funded by a state cigarette tax local voters approved
to help children in their first five years. Preschool
enrollment in the fast-growing community is expected
to more than triple in eight years, writes Mehta. (Read
more)
Ohio state school board votes
to remove critical analysis of evolution
The Ohio Board of Education yesterday
stripped controversial provisions from science standards
that critics said promoted the teaching of intelligent
design.
"After narrowly rejecting a similar attempt last
month, the board voted 11-4 to eliminate portions of
its curriculum guidelines for 10th-grade biology and
an accompanying lesson plan that called for the critical
analysis of evolution. It also directed a committee
to determine whether a replacement lesson is necessary,"
writes Catherine Candisky of The Columbus Dispatch.
The issue arose from two federal-court rulings last
year, the Dispatch notes. First, a judge ordered schools
in suburban Atlanta's Cobb County to remove from biology
textbooks stickers that called evolution a theory, not
a fact. Then a judge ruled the Dover, Pa., school board
violated the constitutional separation of church and
state by ordering biology students be taught intelligent
design.
Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute,
a leading proponent of the design movement, told Candisky,
"There was no good reason to repeal this policy.
It was all false threats that this was about intelligent
design. This isn't over. You can't change the fact that
there is skepticism about evolution." (Read
more)
For the New York Times story on the
Ohio vote, click
here.
Study claims less going to faith-based
grants; White House plans rebuttal
A study released yesterday reports that despite the
Bush administration's rhetorical support for religious
charities, the amount of direct federal grants to faith-based
organizations declined from 2002 to 2004.
The study by the nonpartisan Roundtable on
Religion and Social Welfare Policy examined
28,000 grants made by nine federal agencies over three
years. It found that religious charities got an unchanging
share -- about 18 percent -- of the money awarded each
year, reports The Washington Post.
"White House officials immediately disputed the
findings. They said they will release their own figures
next month showing an increase in federal funding for
religious groups," Alan Cooperman wrote.
Kay Guinane of the advocacy program at OMB
Watch, a liberal watchdog group, said, "Faith-based
initiative is really all about is de-funding social
programs and dumping responsibility for the poor on
the charitable sector." The Post article contained
no direct response to Guinane. (Read
more)
Pennsylvania court's blurring
of Commandments in photo draws objection
In the midst of a national debate about Ten Commandments
displays at courthouses, the Pennsylvania court system
has decided to play it safe and blur the background
of a photograph in a brochure about the state Supreme
Court because it showed a courtroom mural depicting
the Ten Commandments.
"The 2004 brochure became a controversy at a
confirmation hearing for a court nominee [Tuesday],"
writes Mark Scolforo of The Associated Press.
Republican state Sen. Jeffrey Piccola told Allegheny
County Judge Cynthia A. Baldwin that he objected to
how the brochure obscured the words.
The photograph shows state Supreme Court justices with
the mural behind them, notes Scolforo. Piccola asked
Baldwin to prevent the painting from being blurred if
an updated court portrait is produced. Baldwin is Gov.
Ed Rendell's nominee to complete the term of a justice
who was ousted by angry voters after lawmakers gave
themselves and judges a raise. The raise was later repealed,
writes Scolforo.
Art Heinz, a spokesman for the Administrative
Office of Pennsylvania Courts, told Scolforo
he decision to obscure the mural was made by state court
officials while state and federal court challenges on
the display of religious texts at courthouses were pending.
(Read
more) To see the mural, click
here.
North Carolina farmers struggle
with tobacco buyout's tax impact
Former tobacco farmers and quota-holders across North
Carolina are struggling with the tax implications of
last year's $9.6 billion federal tobacco buyout.
The buyout was to reimburse growers for lost income,
so payments to growers who did not own quota are being
taxed as regular income. Meanwhile, former quota owners
who did not farm are being reimbursed for the loss of
value tied to the quotas they gave up. The payments
they received under the buyout are considered capital
gains, notes Norton.
Jake Parker of the North Carolina Farm Bureau
told Frank Norton of the Raleigh News &
Observer, "Folks are confused out there.
This is a lot of money, so it's critical that they get
the right advice." the payments are subject to
up to three separate federal taxes.
Guido van der Hoeven, a buyout expert and agricultural
economist at North Carolina State University,
told Norton, "There are 78,000 quota holders in
North Carolina alone. That means potentially 78,000
unique calculations on capital gains." (Read
more)
Norton's story included these additional information
sources: The N.C.
State University Tobacco Economics, the
N.C.
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services,
the Farm
Service Agency and the Burley
Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association
of Lexington, Ky.
Florida farmworkers sue FEMA
over denial of disaster aid to undocumented
A coalition of Florida farmworkers has sued the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, alleging the government
refused to help undocumented farmworkers displaced by
hurricanes with housing because of their immigration
status.
"Many farmworkers who were denied federal help
after their homes was destroyed were forced to live
in cars and other dangerous situations, while trailers
intended for emergency housing went unused, according
to a lawsuit filed last week," writes Denise Kalette
of The Associated Press. FEMA declined
comment.
The lawsuit claims that workers were denied short-term
disaster housing during the hurricane seasons of 2004
and 2005, including relocation to mobile homes or hotels,
because they did not meet the government's definition
of "qualified alien." The
Coalition of Florida Farmworker Organizations
and the Farm Worker Association of Florida maintain
that federal law exempts short-term non-cash emergency
disaster relief from restrictions based on immigration
status.
The suit seeks a permanent injunction restraining the
agency from denying emergency assistance to undocumented
farm workers and asks the court to declare the policy
illegal. (Read
more)
Animal-rights groups sue to
stop inspections that lead to horse slaughter
An animal-rights coalition and people who live near
the nation's three horse-slaughter plants has filed
suit to prevent the U. S. Department of Agriculture
from providing horse meat inspections for a fee.
The groups alleged that USDA's plans to provide the
inspections violates a law passed as part of the 2006
agriculture spending bill signed by President Bush.
In that legislation, Congress cut funding for salaries
and expenses of horse meat inspectors, reports Elaine
Marsilio of InfoZine.
The plants say the law will cost jobs and economic
benefits. The horses are slaughtered mostly for European
and Asian consumers. The plants in question are Fort
Worth-based Beltex Corp., Dallas
Crown Inc., in Texas and Cavel International
Inc. in DeKalb, Ill. notes Marsilio.
Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society
of the United States, said, "Americans
want horses treated with dignity and respect, not served
up on a plate in Belgium or France. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture is rewriting the rules as if ... the
Congress and the American people don't even exist, "
writes Marsilio. A USDA spokesman was not available
for comment. (Read
more)
Wild hogs rampaging all over
Oklahoma; shoot a big one for a tasty treat
"For years, feral hogs have made their home along
the Red River, rooting their way through farmers' crops
and bottomlands. A few weeks ago, wild oinkers even
committed the heinous crime of ripping up a cemetery,"
writes Louise Red Corn of the Tulsa World.
(Not available on Web site)
"The feral peril, however, is not just southern
Oklahoma's problem anymore. The state departments of
Agriculture and Wildife believe that the porkers are
now living in almost every Oklahoma county, and they
are multiplying, going forth and wreaking havoc,"
Red Corn writes, adding that most are animals that have
escaped from captivity or been illegally released. "Some
have crossbred with wild Russian boars, huge critters
that can top 600 pounds."
"They are superdestructive, they eat anything,
and you can get a big bunch of them in a hurry,"
rancher Doyle Altaffer told Red Corn, who reported that
Altaffer "is battling a posse of about nine known
hogs." Altaffer said, "You get three or four
of them, they each have five or six or more pigs, six
months later they each have six more -- and pretty soon
you have a pot load of them out there. And they get
right after you if you run up on an old mama."
Feral hogs are fair game, and tasty. "Hunters
said feral hogs who tip the scales at less than 150
pounds do make good eating -- more flavorful than the
packaged pork from the supermarket," Red Corn reports.
Democratic leader kills Wal-Mart
health-care bill in Washington state
"A controversial bill aimed at forcing Wal-Mart
to spend more on employee health-care benefits appears
dead" in Washington, The Seattle Times
reports. "Despite a deluge of pressure from labor
unions — and even some guarded last-minute support
from one of the nation's largest grocery chains —
Democratic House Speaker Frank Chopp refused to bring
the bill up for a vote before a key deadline Tuesday."
Unions are lobbying for such bills in about 25 states,
after passage of one in Maryland. The Washington bill
would require companies with 5,000 or more employees
to spend at least 9 percent of their payroll costs on
health benefits. Wal-Mart says the legislation is political.
"Union leaders and their allies say Wal-Mart is
dragging down living standards for millions of workers,
especially in the retail sector, by offering meager
health benefits to its employees," writes Ralph
Thomas of the Times' Olympia bureau. "Critics also
say Wal-Mart is essentially shifting a huge burden to
taxpayers because thousands of its employees are on
government-subsidized health care." (Read
more)
Ken Hart dies at 88 after a
long and varied career in New York and Kentucky
Kenneth W. Hart died Sunday at his home in Frankfort,
Ky., after a long illness. He was 88. Hart was a reporter
for the New York Times who also worked
in New York theatre and moved into radio. He founded
the Kentucky Coal Journal, an industry
newspaper.
Hart was former co-owner and manager of WFKY-AM
in Frankfort and general manager of WLAP-AM
in Lexington and WYND in Sarasota,
Fla.
His body was cremated and his ashes will be interred
in the Frankfort Cemetery. A memorial service will be
held at 1 p.m. Thursday at Rogers Funeral Home
in Frankfort. Visitation will be after 10:30 a.m. Thursday
at the funeral home. Memorial gifts may be sent to Hospice
of the Bluegrass, Franklin County, Frankfort
KY 40601.
Publishers of chain-owned daily
papers added to W. Va. Press Assn. board
Directors of the West
Virginia Press Association have named the publishers
of two chain-owned daily newspapers at the southern
and western corners of the Mountain State to fill vacancies
on the WVPA board. Appointed were Randy Deason, publisher
of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, and
Pete Zanmiller, publisher of The Herald-Dispatch
in Huntington.
The Bluefield newspaper,
which also serves part of Virginia, is owned by Community
Newspaper Holdings Inc., based in Birmingham,
Ala. The Huntington paper, which also serves parts of
Kentucky and Ohio, is owned by Gannett Co. Inc.,
the nation's largest media company.
Deason and Zanmiller succeed
Frank Spicer of the West Virginia Daily News
in Lewisburg (Greenbrier County), who died recently,
and Sandra Hurley, who is now publisher of The
Sampson Independent in Clinton, N.C., after
holding the same job at the Williamson Daily
News, another Heartland Publications
paper, since 1996.
Hurley previously was editor,
ad director and publisher of a West Jefferson, N.C.,
paper that the Independent did not name in its story
about her arrival. Heartland said it promoted Sherry
Matthews, editor of the Independent since 1994, to the
position of general manager but said she would "maintain
her duties in the editorial department." (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Today: Register for Hatfield-McCoy
Institute for Agreement Training
The Kentucky county that was a site of the Hatfield-McCoy
feud will be the site of a week-long institute to highlight
the basics of mediation, negotiation, facilitation,
and high-performance teamwork. The Hatfield-McCoy
Institute for Agreement Training will be held
Feb. 27 through March 3 at the Pike County Extension
Office. Participants will learn largely by doing through
group exercises and role plays. To read more about the
conference, click here.
Registration for the week-long event is $400, made
payable to Pike County Extension District Board, and
should be received by today. A limited
number of need-based scholarships are available on a
first-come basis, with first preference given to Pike
County residents and then to Eastern Kentucky residents.
Registration can be mailed to Tim Campbell, UK Cooperative
Extension Service, 148 Trivette Drive, Pikeville, Ky.
41501, faxed to 606-432-2534, or e-mailed to tcamp@uky.edu.
A detailed agenda is available at http://ces.ca.uky.edu/pike/news/HMIAT.htm.
Feb. 17-18: Rails to Trails
and Greenway Conference in Lexington, Ky.
The Kentucky Rails to Trails Council invites
you to the 2006 Trails and Greenway Conference in Lexington
on Feb. 17-18. for more information about both the Council
and the Conference, visit www.kyrailtrail.org.
Feb. 17-18: Ky. Watershed Watch
for Upper Green, Upper Cumberland
The conference for the Upper Green River Watershed
will be held Friday in Bowling Green, at the Western
Kentucky University Faculty House. The meeting
for the Upper Cumberland River will be held Saturday
at the Center for Rural Development in
Somerset. For more information, and to register online,
go to http://kywater.org/watch
and click on your watershed of choice on the map.
Kentucky Watershed Watch has more
than 3,000 members who give their time in an effort
to improve waterways through a coordinated campaign
of water quality monitoring, skills development and
advocacy. More than 300 organizations are contributing
to the effort by providing volunteers, staff, technical
assistance, instruction and financial resources, and
more than 100 leaders organized in eight local Watershed
steering committees carry out the work of the project.
Tuesday,
Feb. 14, 2006
PBS Frontline, Oregonian probe
meth epidemic in special report tonight
It's called "speed ... meth ... glass. On the
street, methamphetamine has many names. What started
as a fad among West Coast motorcycle gangs in the 1970s
has spread across the United States, and despite lawmakers'
calls for action, the drug is now more potent, and more
destructive, than at any time in the past decade,"
reports the Public Broadcasting System's
documentary series Frontline.
With the help of The Oregonian, a
Portland newspaper that has won awards for its research
of the problem's rise from rural areas in the 1990s,
Frontline will present "The Meth Epidemic"
tonight at 9 EST on PBS (check local listings). The
show "investigates the meth rampage in America:
the appalling impact on individuals, families and communities,
and the difficulty of controlling an essential ingredient
in meth -- ephedrine and pseudoephedrine -- sold legally
in over-the-counter cold remedies," (Read
more)
A bipartisan Congressional coalition has called for
international controls on ephedrine and pseudoephedrine,
which are essential ingredients for making meth. "Many
states have forced cold medicines containing these ingredients
off retail shelves and behind the pharmacy counter,
a move that may become a national requirement,"
notes PBS. (Watch
a preview)
Ohio
state school board may drop call for critical analysis
of evolution
Ohio school officials may revise today a biology lesson
plan that questions evolution and that some consider
to be an excuse to teach intelligent design.
"The push comes after a federal judge found in
December that the Dover [Pa.] school board violated
the Constitution when it ordered that students be taught
intelligent design, the theory that some life-forms
are so complex that an unnamed intelligence, maybe God,
played a role," reports the Columbus Dispatch.
"The decision does not apply in Ohio,
but critics of state standards say it invites a similar
legal challenge."
More than three years ago, Ohio was the first state
to single out evolution for "critical analysis"
in science classes. "A reversal in Ohio would be
the most significant in a series of developments signaling
a sea change across the country against intelligent
design," writes Jodi Rudoren of The New
York Times.
"Supporters say the standards and accompanying
lesson plan promote analytical thinking and do not mention
intelligent design except for the disclaimer: 'The intent
of this indicator does not mandate the teaching or testing
of intelligent design'," notes the Dispatch's Catherine
Candisky. (Read
more) But Rudoren notes, "Recently revealed
Department of Education documents linking the course
to the intelligent design movement have renewed threats
of a lawsuit by opponents of the movement."
Board members have been pressured in recent weeks to
toss out the lesson plan and the standards underpinning
it, notes Rudoren. Today's "expected showdown comes
a month after the board voted 9 to 8 against an emergency
motion to delete the lesson plan," Rudoren reports.
A national group backing evolution has bombarded board
members "considered crucial to a vote against the
lesson plan with 30,000 e-mail messages over the past
week," writes Rudoren. The president of the National
Academy of Sciences yesterday urged the board
to change the lesson plan and the underlying curriculum
guidelines to "conform to established scientific
standards," she writes. (Read
more)
National symbol, the bald eagle,
may soon lose endangered-species status
The bald eagle is moving closer to leaving the list
of threatened or endangered species. "The federal
Fish and Wildlife Service [has] announced a series of
decisions toward declaring the bird's population safely
restored, effectively jump-starting a process that stalled
several years ago," writes Felicity Barringer of
The New York Times.
Barringer notes the effort to remove the eagle from
the federal lists began in 1999 but "became bogged
down in debates over whether two other laws protecting
the bird would actually prove more onerous for developers
and landowners."
The Fish and Wildlife Service has
issued new voluntary guidelines for ways to protect
eagles' nests and feeding grounds, and has defined regulatory
terms that determine protections under the Bald and
Golden Eagle Protection Act. The head of the service,
H. Dale Hall, said of restoring the eagle population,
"There is no clearer victory in the history of
the Endangered Species Act," writes Barringer.
(Read
more)
AFL-CIO opposes federal mine-safety
agency choice; W.Va. appointee closer
The national AFL-CIO has announced
it opposes the confirmation of former coal company official
Richard Stickler to run the nation’s mine-safety
agency.
"John Sweeney, president of the group, sent letters
to senators to urge them to vote against Stickler becoming
the chief of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health
Administration," writes Ken Ward Jr. of
the Charleston Gazette. Sweeney said,
“We cannot expect a regulatory agency to carry
out a mandate of protecting miners when it is run by
the very mine operators it was designed to regulate,”
writes Ward.
Stickler, 61, spent about 30 years working for coal
companies, primarily as a mine manager for Bethlehem
Steel’s coal arm. The Marion County native
worked briefly for Massey Energy, and
then became chief of Pennsylvania’s Bureau
of Deep Mine Safety, writes Ward. (Read
more)
The Gazette's Tom Searls writes, "Gov. Joe Manchin’s
proposal to change requirements for the state’s
mine safety chief [has been] approved by the House of
Delegates, but they would not allow the new requirements
to take effect as soon as the bill is signed."
(Read
more)
Dead miner's daughter
reveals 'smoke' letter to Sago probe committee
The daughter of a West Virginia miner who died in the
Sago mine fire has revealed a letter written by her
father that describes smoky conditions underground and
his fading hope of being rescued.
"Holding back tears, Sarah Bailey, the daughter
of George Hamner Jr., shared with a House panel a note
her father left behind but which has not been previously
publicized," writes Nancy Zuckerbrod of The
Associated Press. Hamner
wrote in the letter about eight hours after the explosion
occurred, "We don't hear any attempts at drilling
or rescue. The section is full of smoke and fumes, so
we can't escape."
The forum was organized by Democrats in the U.S. House.
Hamner's wife and daughter were joined by other relatives
of miners killed at the Sago accident and families of
miners killed two weeks later at the Aracoma Mine near
Logan, W.Va. Families of miners killed at a Jim
Walter Resources mine in Alabama in 2001 also
testified. (Read
more)
Democrats from the Education and Workforce Committee
said they convened the forum because Republicans denied
requests to hold a mine safety hearing, writes Zuckerbrod.
For Charleston Gazette's
report on the forum, click
here.
Georgia lawmakers want school
buses powered in part by bio-diesel
The Georgia Senate has passed a bill that would require
school systems to use environmentally friendly biodiesel
fuel for a small portion of their gasoline needs.
"Under the bill ... at least 2 percent of the
diesel fuel used in school buses and other local school
system vehicles would have to be biodiesel by 2010.
Sen. Brian Kemp, R-Athens, the bill's sponsor, said
the effort would be a small step toward decreasing the
state's dependency on foreign oil," reports The
Associated Press. Kemp, who is running for
state agriculture commissioner, told AP, "This
is no longer an issue about lowering energy prices and
a cleaner environment ... This is an issue of national
security."
Biodiesel is a clean-burning fuel made from vegetable
oils or animal fats. It can be combined with regular
fuel in a diesel engine with only minor changes to the
engine, if any, notes AP writer Doug Gross. Kemp said
materials for the fuel can be raised by Georgia farmers
and the final product can be made by existing Georgia
companies.
Kemp said expanding Georgia's biodiesel industry could
add over $1 billion and nearly 500 jobs to the state's
economy. The bill exempts school districts where biodiesel
fuel is not available, or where the cost of the fuel
was more than 5 percent higher than the cost of regular
diesel fuel, writes Gross. (Read
more)
Tennessee Valley Authority boosts
electric rates, citing rising fuel costs
The Tennessee Valley Authority has
approved raising electric rates nearly 10 percent. "The
increase of 9.95 percent begins April 1, exactly six
months after a 7.5 percent rate hike took effect. TVA
said the change will raise monthly bills between $4.75
and $8.75 for the average [home] customer," writes
Duncan Mansfield of The Associated Press.
TVA Chairman Bill Baxter defended the increase saying
the utility has "worked extremely hard to keep
this increase as low as possible." The increase
is expected to generate about $276 million more in revenue
to offset rising costs, writes Mansfield.
Twelve of 14 utilities fed by the TVA bill their customers
for fuel adjustment charges to account for changing
fuel costs, but the Knoxville-based utility hasn't done
that since the 1970s. For the TVA's 8.5 million residential
customers, how much of the increase will be passed along
will be up to TVA's 158 distributors in Tennessee and
parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North
Carolina and Virginia. Most are expected to pass along
the increase, writes Mansfield. (Read
more)
Oregon
proposal would force large employers to spend more on
health care
Voters in Oregon may get to decide on ballot measure
that would require employers with more than 4,500 workers
to spend at least 9 percent of their payrolls on health
insurance. The measure, similar to one the Maryland
legislature passed recently, is aimed at Wal-Mart Stores
Inc., says The Register-Guard of Eugene
in an editorial.
"It would be hard to fill a phone booth with people
who wake up in the morning feeling sorry for Wal-Mart
... So, when the AFL-CIO says Wal-Mart isn't paying
its fair share of health insurance costs for its 11,035
Oregon employees, it's natural for people to be concerned
for those workers," the newspaper opines. Critics
of the company say its skimpy health-care spending costs
taxpayers because some Wal-Mart employees make so little
they qualify for Medicaid and other government help.
The editorial concludes, "It's unfair to whip
Wal-Mart for the sins of the collapsing U.S. health
care system, but ... if Wal-Mart were to use its renowned
bargaining clout to convince Congress to act on a national
health insurance plan, its current problem would be
solved." (Read
more)
Meanwhile, the
documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
"captivated audiences and influential European
distributors at the Berlin film festival" last
weekend and "is expected to be released in Britain
in April," reports Guardian Unlimited,
the online service of the liberal British newspaper.
It notes Wal-Mart's statement about the film last year:
"Let's be clear about Mr Greenwald's intent: it
is not to present a fair and accurate portrayal of Wal-Mart.
It is a propaganda video designed to advance a narrow
special interest agenda." (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 15: Register for Hatfield-McCoy
Institute for Agreement Training
The Kentucky county that was a site of the Hatfield-McCoy
feud will be the site of a week-long institute to highlight
the basics of mediation, negotiation, facilitation,
and high-performance teamwork. The Hatfield-McCoy
Institute for Agreement Training will be held
Feb. 27 through March 3 at the Pike County Extension
Office. Participants will learn largely by doing through
group exercises and role plays. To read more about the
conference, click here.
Registration for the week-long event is $400, made
payable to Pike County Extension District Board, and
should be received by Feb. 15. A limited number of need-based
scholarships are available on a first-come basis, with
first preference given to Pike County residents and
then to Eastern Kentucky residents. Registration can
be mailed to Tim Campbell, UK Cooperative Extension
Service, 148 Trivette Drive, Pikeville, Ky. 41501, faxed
to 606-432-2534, or e-mailed to tcamp@uky.edu.
A detailed agenda is available at http://ces.ca.uky.edu/pike/news/HMIAT.htm.
Feb. 17-18: Rails to Trails
and Greenway Conference in Lexington, Ky.
The Kentucky Rails to Trails Council invites
you to the 2006 Trails and Greenway Conference in Lexington
on Feb. 17-18. for more information about both the Council
and the Conference, visit www.kyrailtrail.org.
Feb. 17-18: Ky. Watershed Watch
for Upper Green, Upper Cumberland
The conference for the Upper Green River Watershed
will be held in Bowling Green, at the Western
Kentucky University Faculty House. The meeting
for the Upper Cumberland River will be held at the Center
for Rural Development in Somerset. For more
information, and to register online, go to http://kywater.org/watch
and click on your watershed of choice on the map.
Kentucky Watershed Watch has more
than 3,000 members who give their time in an effort
to improve waterways through a coordinated campaign
of water quality monitoring, skills development and
advocacy. More than 300 organizations are contributing
to the effort by providing volunteers, staff, technical
assistance, instruction and financial resources, and
more than 100 leaders organized in eight local Watershed
steering committees carry out the work of the project.
Monday,
Feb. 13, 2006
Indiana mayor, experts tout
broadband Web service as economic necessity
A panel of community broadband experts has concluded
that rural American communities without high-speed Internet
access must be allowed to provide broadband themselves
or risk economic failure.
"We had businesses and industries planning on
leaving Scottsburg because of the poor telecommunications
infrastructure," Mayor William Graham said of his
Indiana city's reasons for municipal broadband, writes
Drew Clark of National Journal's Technology
Daily.
In 1988, Graham began to investigate the matter, after
an employee at a local Chrysler dealership
told him, "Chrysler tells us that if we can't get
high-speed, secure Internet, we have to move the dealership."
Graham also recounted how a local defense contractor
and a plastics factory with international sales suffered
because of poor Internet access, writes Clark. (Read
more)
Montana senator offers legislation
to bring broadband to rural areas
Rural telephone officials want subsidies for high-speed
Internet access, and U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.,
is trying to oblige, reports Mike Dennison of The
Missoulian in Missoula, Mont.
Burns has introduced a bill to revise the “universal
service” program, which is funded by a charge
on telephone bills and helps keep basic-service rates
comparable to those paid by urban customers. Burns'
bill would "allow universal-service funds to subsidize
broadband and other high-speed telecom services [and]
widen the net of telecom-related services that pay the
universal-service charge, such as Internet voice, cable
Internet and broadband services," Dennison reports.
"More telecom customers are using services that
don't pay the charge, putting the fund in financial
jeopardy."
Burns said on the floor of the Senate last week, “Just
as rural electrification in the 1930s led to a surge
of economic growth and raised living standards across
rural America, ‘universal service' plays the same
role in the Internet era.”
Curt Fleming, general manager of Range Telephone
Co-op, told Dennison that without universal
service money, his 25,000 customers in Montana and Wyoming
would be paying $70 to $80 a month for basic service.
He also said Burns' bill could help co-ops offer more
high-speed Internet services. (Read
more)
Washington House votes to require
petroleum vendors to sell biodiesel fuel
A bill approved by the Washington state House Friday
would require 2 percent of diesel-fuel sales in the
state to be diesel made from seed-based crops, or biodiesel.
If approved by the Senate, the bill would take effect
Dec. 1, 2008, or before, if Washington farmers grow
the amount of crops necessary to produce the mandated
amount, reports Jason McBride of the Seattle
Post Intelligencer. The primary sponsor, Rep.
Jan Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, said the measure would
give farmers a "new commodity market."
Some Republicans argued the final product could be
unreliable. Rep. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, said, "The
first time that one of these trucks goes down, the logger,
the truck driver, is not going to come looking for the
fuel company, he's going to come looking for me,"
writes McBride. (Read
more)
Mine-safety
agency checking reliability of tracking, communication
gear
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration
reports that since the Jan. 2 Sago Mine disaster, it
has received about 50 proposals for underground communication
and tracking equipment for coal miners.
"The agency is exploring the reliability of various
technologies. Two major coal operators, Consolidation
Coal Co. and Peabody Coal Co.,
have agreed to help MSHA test equipment," writes
James R. Carroll of The Courier-Journal
in his Sunday "Notes from Washington."
One device sends a text message to a small screen on
a miner's lamp battery. Another enables them to be tracked
from the surface. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has said
the devices could be part of a legislative package of
safety changes for the nation's coal mines, writes Carroll
for the Louisville newspaper.
Acting MSHA Director David Dye said that while some
of the few mines using the new communication technology
were enthusiastic about its performance, others said
it was not reliable. But former MSHA Director J. Davitt
McAteer said the communication and tracking equipment
worked and was in wide use in Australia and China.
(Read
more)
For an extensive Voice of America report
on this year's mine disasters, "After Safest Year
on Record, Coal Mining Deaths Raise Concerns,"
by Jerilyn Watson, click
here.
Ministers preach evolution vs.
creationism debate is a 'false dichotomy'
"On the 197th birthday of Charles Darwin, ministers
at several hundred churches around the country preached
against recent efforts to undermine the theory of evolution,
asserting that the opposition many Christians say exists
between science and faith is false," reports The
New York Times.
Rev. Patricia Templeton of St. Dunstan's Episcopal
Church in north Atlanta told her congregation, "A
faith that requires you to close your mind in order
to believe is not much of a faith at all." In Evanston,
Ill., the Rev. Mitchell Brown at the Evanston Mennonite
Church preached that Darwin "forced religion to
grow up, to become, really, faith for the first time."
"Evolution Sunday" is an outgrowth of the
Clergy Letter Project, started in response to efforts
to discredit the teaching of evolutionary theory in
public schools, write Nella Banerjee and Anne Berryman.
Michael Zimmerman, dean of the College of Letters and
Sciences at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh,
told them, "There was a growing need to demonstrate
that the loud, shrill voices of fundamentalists claiming
that Christians had to choose between modern science
and religion were presenting a false dichotomy."
Zimmerman told the Times more than 10,000 ministers
had signed the letter, which states the theory of evolution
is "a foundational scientific truth." To reject
it, the letter continues, "is to deliberately embrace
scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to
our children." (Read
more)
Are Wal-Mart, Barnes and Noble
spelling trouble for Christian bookstores?
Christian bookstores suffer when mega-retail chains
like Wal-Mart and Barnes and
Noble rack up sales of The Purpose-Driven
Life and the Left Behind series.
Books account for only 40 percent of sales in Christian
retail stores, and shelves now include music, gifts,
jewelry, stationery and church supplies, reports Rose
French of The Associated Press. Bill
Anderson, president and CEO of the Christian
Booksellers Association, said independent retailers
need to emphasize their wide selection, knowledgeable
employees and partnerships with churches. Fewer than
2,300 stores belong to the association, and 337 Christian
stores closed last year, according to the CBA.
"Religious books, primarily Christian, generated
U.S. sales of nearly $338 million in 2003, which represented
a 37 percent growth over the previous year. In 2004,
the religious segment grew 5.6 percent while the overall
book publishing industry was flat," notes French.
(Read
more)
Tennessee Valley Authority considers
first mid-year rate increase in 25 years
The Tennessee Valley Authority today
will consider its first mid-year electric rate increase
in at least 25 years. The anticipated increase comes
barely four months after TVA last boosted prices in
response to escalating fuel costs, reports Duncan Mansfield
of The Associated Press.
The nation's largest public utility, did not disclose
the size of the proposed increase before today's directors'
meeting. A 7.5 percent increase took effect Oct. 1.
The new rates would be felt by about 8.5 million consumers
who receive TVA power through 158 distributors in Tennessee
and parts of Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia,
North Carolina and Virginia, writes Mansfield. (Read
more)
Saturday-Sunday,
Feb. 11-12, 2006
Democrats lost
in 2004 because they forgot about rural America, Reid
says
Looking toward this fall's elections,
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said in a recent visit
to Colorado that in 2004, "Democrats lost around
the country because we simply had forgotten about rural
America. ... "We had a message that would have
sold all over America, but Democrats had become complacent
and thought they could win all of the elections by campaigning
in the big cities."
"Democrats don't have to change their
message, he said, they just need to don a good pair
of boots and wade into the wheat fields of rural America
to sell it," and editorial in The Denver
Post paraphrased Reid as saying. Reid, who
lives in rural Nevada, was on "a red-state tour,
which recently made stops in Colorado, Utah, Arizona,
Idaho and Nevada, with more to come," the newspaper
reports.
The spokeswoman for the Colorado
Republican Party, Rachael Sunbarger, told the
paper that rural Americans vote their consciences. She
said Democrats"might have this grand scheme to
mimic our strategy and reach out to our base, but the
bottom line is our message resonates with those voters,"
and a better economy will make it less likely they will
conclude Republicans have abandoned them.
The Post editorial concluded, "We're glad to see
both parties attentive to rural issues. Farm and ranching
communities should be the beneficiary of invaluable
political attention during the midterm campaigns and
again in 2008." (Click
here to read more)
National-forest parcels would
be sold to keep money flowing to rural areas
"About 300,000 acres of national
forest and grasslands would be put on the block to raise
$800 million for schools and roads" in rural areas
where the lands lie, reports Andy Mead of the Lexington
Herald-Leader. "Environmentalists were
quick to find fault with the plan."
Others reported this, but Mead's explanation
was quite clear: "Counties with national forest
land aren't able to collect taxes on that land, so the
federal government used to give them 25 percent of the
proceeds from timber sales and other receipts. Because
timber sales dwindled nationwide in the 1990s, Congress
passed a law in 2000 that guaranteed payments to the
counties regardless of sales. That law, the Secure Rural
Schools and Community Self Determination Act, expires
at the end of this fiscal year in September. The administration
wants to extend it for five years, but will ask Congress
to allow land sales to pay for it."
"There aren't $800 million worth
of funding cuts that we could find, which is why we
are looking at this as a revenue raiser," Mark
Rey, the Agriculture Department's undersecretary
for natural resources and environment, told Mead, who
wrote that "Payments would decrease over the next
five years to wean rural areas from the program. . .
. The money probably could be raised before all the
land listed is sold, Forest Service
officials said. The Forest Service owns more than 193
million acres." (Read
more)
The state with the most acreage for sale
would be California. For a report on that state and
reaction from both sides, via the Tri-Valley
Herald of Pleasanton, click
here.
The
Forest Service says the lands proposed for sale
are "small tracts . . . that are isolated or inefficient
to manage due to their location or other characteristics."
The lands are in 34 states. To see a list, click
here. Maps for most states are not available yet,
but those for Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Oregon
and Mississippi are available by clicking links on this
Web page.
Alabama church
fires rob rural communities of the centers of their
lives
"Another Baptist church burned in
West Alabama on Saturday, not long after investigators
urged the arsonists believed responsible for a string
of church fires across the region to contact authorities,"
reports Sarah Bruyn Jones of the Tuscaloosa
News. "It’s not known if the fire
that destroyed Beaverton Freewill Baptist Church on
Saturday evening is related to the nine previous Baptist
church fires, but investigators said they are suspicious."
(Read
more)
"The little rural churches of Alabama
are like anchors for their small, often struggling towns,
but nowhere more so than in this sparsely populated
and predominantly black swath of the state's far western
edge, home to four of the nine Baptist churches that
arsonists have destroyed or damaged in Alabama during
the last week," Rick Lyman wrote for the Saturday
New York Times.
"Church is where the people come
together out here," County Commissioner William
Johnson told Lyman. "We marry there and we worship
there and we bury our families there. But they're more
than that. During the week we don't see each other so
much, but on Sunday we get together, and church is where
we do it."
Lyman reports that the arsonists passed
by dozens of churches, "suggesting that they either
knew the landscape or had taken time to scout their
targets." Guy Thomas, an agent of the federal Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Since
both black and white churches have been torched, officials
believe the arsonists are driven not by racial hatred
but "by other motives, perhaps thrill-seeking or
some deep-seated hatred of religion in general and Baptists
in particular."
U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, the area's congressman,
told Lyman, "Whatever their goals, what we want
them to know is that they failed. If they wanted to
harm the churches of these communities, they need to
know that this coming Sunday the people will be worshiping,
just as they always have, and we will rebuild all of
these churches. So whoever they are, they have failed."
(Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 15: Register for Hatfield-McCoy
Institute for Agreement Training
The Kentucky county that was a site of the Hatfield-McCoy
feud will be the site of a week-long institute to highlight
the basics of mediation, negotiation, facilitation,
and high-performance teamwork. The Hatfield-McCoy
Institute for Agreement Training will be held
Feb. 27 through March 3 at the Pike County Extension
Office. Participants will learn largely by doing through
group exercises and role plays. To read more about the
conference, click here.
Registration for the week-long event is $400, made
payable to Pike County Extension District Board, and
should be received by Feb. 15. A limited number of need-based
scholarships are available on a first-come basis, with
first preference given to Pike County residents and
then to Eastern Kentucky residents. Registration can
be mailed to Tim Campbell, UK Cooperative Extension
Service, 148 Trivette Drive, Pikeville, Ky. 41501, faxed
to 606-432-2534, or e-mailed to tcamp@uky.edu.
A detailed agenda is available at http://ces.ca.uky.edu/pike/news/HMIAT.htm.
Feb. 17-18: Rails to Trails
and Greenway Conference in Lexington, Ky.
The Kentucky Rails to Trails Council invites
you to the 2006 Trails and Greenway Conference in Lexington
on Feb. 17-18. for more information about both the Council
and the Conference, visit www.kyrailtrail.org.
Feb. 17-18: Ky. Watershed Watch
for Upper Green, Upper Cumberland
The conference for the Upper Green River Watershed
will be held in Bowling Green, at the Western
Kentucky University Faculty House. The meeting
for the Upper Cumberland River will be held at the Center
for Rural Development in Somerset. For more
information, and to register online, go to http://kywater.org/watch
and click on your watershed of choice on the map.
Kentucky Watershed Watch has more
than 3,000 members who give their time in an effort
to improve waterways through a coordinated campaign
of water quality monitoring, skills development and
advocacy. More than 300 organizations are contributing
to the effort by providing volunteers, staff, technical
assistance, instruction and financial resources, and
more than 100 leaders organized in eight local Watershed
steering committees carry out the work of the project.
Saturday-Sunday,
Feb. 11-12, 2006
Democrats lost
in 2004 because they forgot about rural America, Reid
says
Looking toward this fall's elections,
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said in a recent visit
to Colorado that in 2004, "Democrats lost around
the country because we simply had forgotten about rural
America. ... "We had a message that would have
sold all over America, but Democrats had become complacent
and thought they could win all of the elections by campaigning
in the big cities."
"Democrats don't have to change their
message, he said, they just need to don a good pair
of boots and wade into the wheat fields of rural America
to sell it," and editorial in The Denver
Post paraphrased Reid as saying. Reid, who
lives in rural Nevada, was on "a red-state tour,
which recently made stops in Colorado, Utah, Arizona,
Idaho and Nevada, with more to come," the newspaper
reports.
The spokeswoman for the Colorado
Republican Party, Rachael Sunbarger, told the
paper that rural Americans vote their consciences. She
said Democrats"might have this grand scheme to
mimic our strategy and reach out to our base, but the
bottom line is our message resonates with those voters,"
and a better economy will make it less likely they will
conclude Republicans have abandoned them.
The Post editorial concluded, "We're glad to see
both parties attentive to rural issues. Farm and ranching
communities should be the beneficiary of invaluable
political attention during the midterm campaigns and
again in 2008." (Click
here to read more)
National-forest parcels would
be sold to keep money flowing to rural areas
"About 300,000 acres of national
forest and grasslands would be put on the block to raise
$800 million for schools and roads" in rural areas
where the lands lie, reports Andy Mead of the Lexington
Herald-Leader. "Environmentalists were
quick to find fault with the plan."
Others reported this, but Mead's explanation
was quite clear: "Counties with national forest
land aren't able to collect taxes on that land, so the
federal government used to give them 25 percent of the
proceeds from timber sales and other receipts. Because
timber sales dwindled nationwide in the 1990s, Congress
passed a law in 2000 that guaranteed payments to the
counties regardless of sales. That law, the Secure Rural
Schools and Community Self Determination Act, expires
at the end of this fiscal year in September. The administration
wants to extend it for five years, but will ask Congress
to allow land sales to pay for it."
"There aren't $800 million worth
of funding cuts that we could find, which is why we
are looking at this as a revenue raiser," Mark
Rey, the Agriculture Department's undersecretary
for natural resources and environment, told Mead, who
wrote that "Payments would decrease over the next
five years to wean rural areas from the program. . .
. The money probably could be raised before all the
land listed is sold, Forest Service
officials said. The Forest Service owns more than 193
million acres." (Read
more)
The state with the most acreage for sale
would be California. For a report on that state and
reaction from both sides, via the Tri-Valley
Herald of Pleasanton, click
here.
The
Forest Service says the lands proposed for sale
are "small tracts . . . that are isolated or inefficient
to manage due to their location or other characteristics."
The lands are in 34 states. To see a list, click
here. Maps for most states are not available yet,
but those for Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Oregon
and Mississippi are available by clicking links on this
Web page.
Alabama church
fires rob rural communities of the centers of their
lives
"Another Baptist church burned in
West Alabama on Saturday, not long after investigators
urged the arsonists believed responsible for a string
of church fires across the region to contact authorities,"
reports Sarah Bruyn Jones of the Tuscaloosa
News. "It’s not known if the fire
that destroyed Beaverton Freewill Baptist Church on
Saturday evening is related to the nine previous Baptist
church fires, but investigators said they are suspicious."
(Read
more)
"The little rural churches of Alabama
are like anchors for their small, often struggling towns,
but nowhere more so than in this sparsely populated
and predominantly black swath of the state's far western
edge, home to four of the nine Baptist churches that
arsonists have destroyed or damaged in Alabama during
the last week," Rick Lyman wrote for the Saturday
New York Times.
"Church is where the people come
together out here," County Commissioner William
Johnson told Lyman. "We marry there and we worship
there and we bury our families there. But they're more
than that. During the week we don't see each other so
much, but on Sunday we get together, and church is where
we do it."
Lyman reports that the arsonists passed
by dozens of churches, "suggesting that they either
knew the landscape or had taken time to scout their
targets." Guy Thomas, an agent of the federal Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Since
both black and white churches have been torched, officials
believe the arsonists are driven not by racial hatred
but "by other motives, perhaps thrill-seeking or
some deep-seated hatred of religion in general and Baptists
in particular."
U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, the area's congressman,
told Lyman, "Whatever their goals, what we want
them to know is that they failed. If they wanted to
harm the churches of these communities, they need to
know that this coming Sunday the people will be worshiping,
just as they always have, and we will rebuild all of
these churches. So whoever they are, they have failed."
(Read
more)
Friday,
Feb. 10, 2006
Modern media climate demands
that journalists live, invest in communities
Community journalism must come from reporters who live
and invest themselves in their communities. That was
the consensus of some 200 journalists and students at
a community journalism forum in Alabama called to discuss
the roles of newspapers in their communities.
Those attending the "National Conversation on
the Emerging Mind of Community Journalism" in Anniston,
Ala., also discussed what a newspaper should and should
not be in an age of changing media, writes Crystal Jarvis
of The
Anniston Star.
"Much of the conversation harkened back to fundamentals,
the essentials of journalism. Face-to-face interviews,
long the hallmark of reporting at smaller and medium-sized
papers, were emphasized as the finest way to reach readers
and reflect their interests and concerns. Conversations
turned to the nuance of
news gathering, story development and the facile way
a skilled hand could parlay readers’ thoughts
into a representation for the printed – or World
Wide Web – product," writes Jarvis.
Panelists and audience members expressed the need for
many newspapers to implement the principles of community
journalism, but there was no expressed consensus about
just what "community journalism" means. Al
Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism
and Community Issues, told the forum, "The
definition of community journalism is how your readers
see you, and if they see you as a community newspaper,
you are. If they don’t, then you're not."
(Read
more - Subscription required, one-time, 24-hour
access available free with registration.
Bush budget proposal would cut
$417 million for anti-meth program
The Bush administration's $2.7 trillion budget proposal
would eliminate a $417 million grant program that helps
fund states' efforts to combat the nation's growing
methampethamine problem.
This marks the second year in a row that Bush has
proposed diverting funds away from fighting a problem
that is running rampant through rural communities. Sen.
Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said local law enforcement
agents should not bear the burden of fighting meth on
their own. "Federal help is more important than
ever," Lincoln said, reports Raam Wong of the Stephens
Media Group.
Bush administration officials have justified the proposed
cut by claiming no evidence exists that the grants reduced
crime. Justice Department spokesman John Nowacki said
the cut would "ensure that sufficient funding is
available for counterterrorism and to reduce the overall
budget deficit." (Read
more)
Post-war jobs:
Fifteen percent of vets ages 20 to 24 are unemployed
Many veterans are struggling to re-adjust to civilian
life, and more than 15 percent of those 20 to 24 years
old are unemployed.
That 15 percent unemployment rate is nearly twice the
rate of non-veterans in the same age range, reports
Military.com.
The unemployment rate in rural areas may be higher since
the armed services draw disproportionately from those
areas. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) said, "These
rising unemployment numbers for these young veterans
are startling to say the least," according to a
Senate press
release. The U.S. Department of Labor
plans to give $162 million to state agencies this year
to find veterans work.
In response to this unemployment news, Gulf War veteran
William Bragg of Salem, Ore., writes on his blog, "That’s
right. Join up. Become an ‘army of one’.
Fight the good fight. War on Terror. Serve in Afghanistan
or Iraq. Be a hero. But….um….don’t
expect anything when you get home." (Read
more)
Cheryl L. Reed of the Chicago Sun-Times
reports that Louisiana was No. 1 last year for hiring
veterans and Illinois came in last, according to the
Labor Department's Veterans Employment and Training
Service. (Click
here for complete rankings) In all, about 700,000
veterans are unemployed across the U.S., with 200,000
service members returning to civilian life each year,
notes Reed. (Read
more)
Al Tompkins' Morning Meeting column for the
Poynter Institute highlighted the
numerous problems facing veterans. (Read
more) Rural media should contact employment offices
and veterans-service agencies to do their own stories
on the problem.
Coal industry's mine-safety
fines rank as smallest of all federal penalties
A USA Today analysis has found coal
companies pay some of the smallest fines of any industry
for federal violations even as the nation tries to curb
one of the deadliest periods in recent coal-mining history.
"The federal government levied a larger fine —
$550,000 — for the 2004 Super Bowl showing of
Janet Jackson's breast than it did for the 2001 deaths
of 13 miners in one of the deadliest mine disasters
in a quarter-century, and that fine, against Alabama
mine operator Jim Walter Resources,
was cut by a judge to $3,000," writes USA Today's
Thomas Frank.
Federal law limits fines to $60,000 for each violation
of a mine health and safety standard. The Environmental
Protection Agency, the Federal Communications
Commission and the Securities and Exchange
Commission can levy fines of $1 million or
more for a single violation. Labor Department regulations
require mining fines to be cut by 30 percent if violations
are quickly abated, notes Frank
Steve Webber, who oversaw mining penalties for the
federal government from 1999 to 2003, told Frank, "That
doesn't make any sense. You're rewarding (mine) operators
for correcting conditions that should not have existed
in the first place."
Mining fines are particularly small compared with recent
record profits in the coal industry. The 10 largest
publicly-held coal companies reported combined profits
of $2.4 billion last year on $24 billion in sales, writes
Frank. Davitt McAteer, mine-safety chief in the Clinton
administration, told a Senate panel recently, "The
price of coal has increased dramatically and the price
of penalties has not," adding that increasing fines
"needs to be done and it needs to be done immediately."
(Read
more)
In midst of deadly 2006 start,
coal industry reports banner-year expectations
The National Mining Association has
expectations for a record production year despite mining
accidents that have raised questions about industry
safety.
NMA Senior Economist Connie Holmes reports, "Coal
production is expected to reach 1.16 billion tons or
3.2 percent higher than last year. [And,] coal production
in Appalachia, Illinois, Indiana and west Kentucky is
expected to increase by 3 percent over last year. West
Virginia is the nation's No. 2 coal producer,"
writes Ellyn Ferguson of the Gannett News Service.
Holmes told Ferguson, "Use of coal is going to
set a fifth consecutive record. The production and use
of coal is being driven by one factor -- unprecedented
demand for electricity." She added utilities see
coal as an economical alternative to using more expensive
natural gas to generate electricity.
In response to stricter mine safety regulations being
passed at both the federal and state levels, NMA spokesman
Luke Popovich said the industry remains wary of potential
government mandates and whether they would be effective
in making mining safer, writes Ferguson. (Read
more)
Kentucky House
OKs wide-ranging mine-safety bill spurred by coal deaths
After the deaths of 18 people in Kentucky and West
Virginia coal mines during the past five weeks, the
Kentucky House has passed a bill that would increase
safety equipment, bring bigger fines and prompt more
underground mine inspections.
The measure passed unanimously and now heads to the
Senate, where leaders have promised quick approval.
Rep. Howard Cornett, R-Whitesburg, in the heart of the
Central Appalachia coal country, told the Lexington
Herald-Leader, "This legislation will
save lives and I'm proud of that."
Kentucky has added funding for 14 additional inspectors
since December 2003, although only seven of those positions
have been filled. In all, the state Office of Mine Safety
and Licensing has 54 inspectors, a job with a starting
salary of $27,500, notes reporter John Stamper.
Kentucky led the nation last year in the number of
mine deaths with eight killed, according to the U.S.
Mine Safety and Health Administration, writes
Stamper. (Read
more) For The Associated Press
version of this story by Bruce Schreiner, click
here. For information on HB 503, click
here.
UMW wants subpoenas
for witnesses in Sago probe, presence in interviews
The United Mine Workers wants state
and federal officials to subpoena witnesses for the
ongoing investigation of the Sago Mine disaster, reports
Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette.
UMW officials say that subpoenas would stop witnesses
who appear voluntarily from forcing union officials
to leave the room during investigation interviews. UMW
President Cecil Roberts asked for the action in a letter
to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration
and the state Office of Miners’ Health,
Safety and Training. Roberts said in the letter.
"An investigation that relies on voluntary statements
will only work if the miners’ representatives
can participate." (Read
more)
Ward writes in a separate report, that the
National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health will examine foam blocks
used to seal a closed-off mine area where the explosion
that caused the Sago Mine disaster may have occurred.
MSHA and the state Office of Miners Health, Safety and
Training had asked NIOSH for special assistance in the
investigation. Twelve miners died and another was critically
injured in the Jan. 2 explosion, marking the state's
mining disaster in nearly 40 years. (Read
more)
Coal-dam project expands to
Kentucky, Pennsylvania
The Coal Impoundment Location and Information System,
a West Virginia-based Web site that monitors coal slurry
impoundments, is expanding into Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
"The site features the latest information on 116
coal impoundments in Kentucky and 43 impoundments in
[eastern] Pennsylvania," project director Davitt
McAteer told Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston
Gazette.
The Web
site is part of a pilot program developed by the
National Technology Transfer Center at Wheeling
Jesuit University and several other entities.
Impoundments are used to dispose of the solid and liquid
waste generated by the washing of coal at preparation
plants. The site provides alternatives for impounding
coal waste. Support for the project comes from the Altria
Foundation, Ford Foundation,
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and the Rockefeller
Foundation. (Read
more)
FEMA: Housing still a hurdle
along Texas Gulf Coast after Hurricane Rita
Shelter remains a challenge for those displaced along
the Texas Gulf Coast by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina,
but hotel rooms for hurricane victims have started to
clear with a change in the way federal payment for the
temporary housing is handled, reports Beth Gallaspy
of The Beaumont Enterprise.
Albie Lewis, a special assistant with the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, told reporters,
"Beaumont is a more difficult case because
of the total lack of housing."
FEMA has registered more than 478,000 Texas households
needing help after Hurricane Rita and issued 426 authorizations
for hurricane victims still staying in Beaumont area
hotels. FEMA has paid for 4,444 hotel rooms around Texas.
With the authorization code requirement, the number
of those staying in hotels has dropped to 3,850, which
means about 600 rooms statewide were vacated, notes
Gallaspy.
Lewis also told reporters, "As we had expected,
there were many that had other housing arrangements
and took advantage of those arrangements." (Read
more)
Bush budget proposal would make
meat companies pay overtime for inspectors
The Bush administration proposed budget sent to Congress
this week is renewing an attempt to have meat and poultry
companies pay overtime costs for federal inspectors.
Processors, including Springdale, Ark.-based giant
Tyson Foods Inc., would bear part of the estimated
$124 million in extra costs. The proposal has been rejected
in the past and is unlikely to pass this year, said
Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., writes Alison Vekshin of the
Stephens Media Group. The proposed
user fees would cover overtime, holiday and voluntary
inspection services beyond an eight-hour primary shift,
which is presently paid for by the government. (Read
more)
Kentucky House 'In God We Trust'
proposal passed after brief debate
A proposal to place the national motto "In God
We Trust" in the Kentucky House of Representatives
chamber has passed in the House.
"The proposal had been previously tacked onto
a bill that lawmakers believe will allow posting of
the Ten Commandments as part of historic exhibits in
public buildings," writes John Stamper of the Lexington
Herald-Leader. The amended bill passed 91-3
and now moves on to the Senate.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Tom Riner, D-Louisville, said
placing "In God We Trust" above the dais of
the House speaker is "an opportunity to affirm
what we all believe," and added the measure would
make Kentucky a leading state in addressing the "oppression
and censorship" of national history.
Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, scolded her colleagues
and asked thm, "Will posting the Ten Commandments
help ... kids? Will it buy them food? Will it cover
them up at night?" Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo, D-Lexington,
urged legislators to post the Ten Commandments "in
your heart." (Read
more)
Beware of the trees:
Nebraska landowners waging war on cedar infestations
"For decades, area landowners have waged a battle
against one of the prairie's most ruthless enemies:
Cedar trees," writes Rita Brhel, of the Yankton
Press & Dakotan of South Dakota. "Now,
with the help of the Nebraska
Natural Legacy Project, the fight against
this hardy, rampant weed should become much more effective."
Clayton Stalling of the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission told Brhel that
Eastern red cedar now dominates the state's grasslands.
The Legacy Project hopes to change that, with a collection
of groups interested in habitat and species conservation.
The NNLP's first task was to a wildlife conservation
plan, completed in the fall of 2005. The next step is
to implement the plan across the state's unique habitats.
Certain areas were selected as pilot locations for their
widespread cedar infestation, which is destroying grassland
hills and oak-lined draws. "NNLP believes that
improving the targeted area's habitat will impact a
large amount of species and that its conservation efforts
can be useful and easily repeated in other areas,"
Brhel explains.
Many landowners don't spray pesticide, chop trees or
burn pastures, which allows cedars to spread to other
properties. Stalling said at the project's public introduction,
"We don't want this thing to linger for years.
We want people to get involved now. Looking around the
room, our most important partners are sitting right
here," referring to local landowners. "Whatever
we do, we got to make it work for here, and I don't
think it'll be long until that happens." (Read
more)
Ky. man's 'illegal hug,' alleged
sex abuse, downgraded to disorderly conduct
Anyone feeling the need for a squeeze might think long
and hard about requesting a hug from a stranger after
a Corbin, Ky., man barely escaped sexual harassment
charges following what he thought was a kind response
to his perhaps romantic request.
Ricky Allen Baker found out he won't have to serve
jail time after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct,
a lesser offense than his original charge of sexual
abuse. His crime: an illegal hug.
"Baker was arrested Dec. 7 after he entered Tadpoles
and Lillies, a childrens' clothing store on Main Street
in Corbin, chatted with a 22-year-old female clerk for
some time, then asked her to give him a hug," reports
Trent Knuckles of the Corbin News Journal.
"She obliged, and Baker left. He was captured by
police a short time later after a worker at the store
reported the incident."
Before the hearing was scheduled to begin, Baker reached
a plea bargain, and agreed to a probated 30-day jail
sentence. He is also forbidden to have any contact with
the victim, 22-year-old Heather Cornett, or to return
to the store. Cornett, said she agreed to the hug because
of his odd behavior, and said she "feared for her
life."
"I thought he was there to kill me and I figured
if I didn't hug him, he would kill me," she told
Knuckles. "He kept his hand in his pocket and it
looked like he had something stuffed in his jacket.
I thought it was kind of odd. I thought he was concealing
a knife or something." (Read
more)
California alt-weekly's meth
story draws readers' anger, editor's apology
Jim Mullin, editor at New Times' San
Luis Obispo, Calif., paper, is apologizing for "Meth
Made Easy," a story that attracted angry letters,
phone calls and personal visits.
Last week, the alt-weekly, circulation 40,000, published
a story by Alice Moss that talked about how easy it
is to make methamphetamine and even included "Meth
Fun Facts." "A simple meth recipe can turn
a $50 investment in cold pills and chemicals into an
$8,000- to $10,000 profit," writes Moss. The article
also documented meth's rise in popularity. "Meth
is the drug of the hour. In recent years, its popularity
has skyrocketed nationwide. In SLO County alone, law
enforcement officials seized 9.7 pounds of meth in 2005,
up from 2.5 pounds in 2004," reports Moss. (Read
more)
In a written apology, Mullin describes the public backlash
created by the story: "Many faithful readers vowed
never to pick up New Times again. Businesses that for
years served as distribution points told us they no
longer want the paper in their stores. Other businesses
withdrew advertising."
Many readers simply wondered what the paper was thinking,
notes Mullin. To that, he replies, "The impetus
for exploring the methamphetamine phenomenon was the
January 5 bust of a meth lab in Paso Robles. We noted
the incident in a brief story the following week, but
a larger question lingered: Despite the well-publicized
dangers of meth, law enforcement agencies continually
arrest people for making it and using it. In fact, those
arrests have become so common they barely register on
the radar of the Central Coast’s media. But what
did we really know about those 'laboratories?'"
Mullin is optimistic that something positive can come
from this interaction with readers. "The outcry,
the condemnations, the threats that followed have left
us humbled and distressed. Yet we still have hope that
this civic fury can produce something positive: a candid
dialogue that leads to greater understanding —
made possible by the power of knowledge," he opines.
(Read
more)
CNHI News Service names first
of 10 'elite reporting program' fellowships
Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. has
named Niagara (N.Y.) Gazette
reporter Denise Jewell the first recipient of its Elite
Reporting Program fellowship from the chain's news service.
Jewell, the city reporter for the newspaper, is the
first of 10 "elite reporters" to be named
this year. Each will spend four weeks on a CNHI News
Service national reporting project that will provide
multimedia packages for CNHI newspapers. The program
begins Feb. 15.
CNHI Vice President of Editorial Brad Dennison said,
“Denise has proven herself an extraordinary community
journalist. Now she can take what she knows and apply
it to national-scale projects with the help and support
of some of the best editors anywhere.” Veteran
journalist and vice president of news at The
Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass.,
Bill Ketter, will lead the first project. (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 11: Kentucky Watershed
Watch conference for Licking River Basin
This conference will be held at Blue Licks
Battlefield State Park between Maysville and
Paris. For more information, and to register on-line,
go to http://kywater.org/watch.
Kentucky Watershed Watch
has more than 3,000 members who give
their time in an effort to improve waterways through
a coordinated campaign of water quality monitoring,
skills development and advocacy. More than 300 organizations
are providing volunteers, staff, technical assistance,
instruction and financial resources, and more than 100
leaders in eight local Watershed steering committees
carry out the work.
Feb. 14: Agricultural pesticides
safety workshop in Louisville
Agricultural pesticide applicators can attend a daylong
educational workshop Feb. 14 in Louisville, then spend
the next day browsing through the exhibits at the National
Farm Machinery Show.
The workshop will begin at 8:50 a.m. at the Executive
Inn, located just outside the gates of the
Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, home to the annual
machinery show. Information will be provided on regulatory
and safety issues, crop biosecurity for dealers, and
soybean integrated pest management issues and control
strategies, reports Laura Skillman of the University
of Kentucky College of Agriculture Communications
Department. (Read
more)
The meeting is sponsored by the University of Kentucky
Pesticide Safety Program, Kentucky IPM Program and the
AgriBusiness Association of Kentucky.
The cost of the workshop is $35. Registration will be
taken at the door but pre-registration is requested.
To register, contact Tod Griffin at (502) 226-1122 or
tgriffin@kyretail.com.
Thursday,
Feb. 9, 2006
When the cat's away, the mice
will play; legislators need more media cats
"For many members of Congress there's
no local reporter keeping track of their golf buddies,
legislative interests, campaign contributors, etc. They
are never scrutinized. So who knows what they're up
to? How many of you had huge parties in high school
when your parents went out of town?" asked Shailagh
Murray of The Washington Post in an
e-mail chat about congressional politics yesterday.
She was answering a question from a Maryland
reader who wanted to know "how plausible is it
that there is only one Jack Abramoff? How plausible
is it that there is only one Duke Cunningham?"
Cunningham is the California congressman recently convicted
of taking bribes. "The indications are that the
case highlights a pattern," the reader wrote, then
urged, "Keep digging!" (Read
more)
Murray prefaced her reply with this observation: "I
do think that the crusading spirit of many newspapers
has been more or less snuffed out, either because the
newspapers have disappeared, or because they have other
priorities." In other words, they no longer have
Washington correspondents or their local news staffs
put less priority on covering state and federal legislators.
The result is that most members of Congress
-- not just "many," as Murray guessed -- and
the state legislatures do not have a reporter assigned
to cover them on a regular basis. Modern technology,
mainly the Internet, makes it possible to do much of
that job without being in the capital. For example,
campaign-finance and lobbying reports are easily available
online. As the Maryland reader urged, "Keep digging!"
If you need help, contact the Institute for
Rural Journalism and Community Issues.
Conference on community journalism
opens in Anniston, continues today
"A National Conversation on the Emerging Mind
of Community Journalism" began last night in the
new offices of The Anniston Star and
continues today at the Buckner Center in the eastern
Alabama city. "It’s just the start of a discussion
central to the survival of newspapers as well as a fully
functioning democracy," according to an
editorial in the newspaper.
The conference is just part of what organizers call
"community journalism week" in the area, which
began Tuesday with the first meeting of the advisory
board for the Knight
Community Journalism Fellows, a master's degree
program that the University of Alabama will
operate at the Star starting this fall, using it as
a teaching newspaper, much as medical schools have teaching
hospitals.
The program is funded by the John
S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The
president of the foundation, Alberto Ibargüen,
spoke Tuesday night at the annual banquet the Star holds
for writers of the best letters to the editor, and gave
the annual Ayers
Lecture, endowed by the Star's owners, at Jacksonville
State University near Anniston yesterday.
Ibargüen, former publisher of The Miami
Herald and el Nuevo Herald,
told the letter writers that they should value the freedom
to get their views published, in light of the many murders
of journalists in other countries. “I hope you
appreciate the fabulous privilege that you have,”
Ibargüen told the crowd. (Read
more from the Star; subscription required) To read
Ibarguen's full text, click
here.
During yesterday's lecture, Ibargüen said the
26,000-circulation Star "exemplifies the best of
community journalism" because it follows these
principles: "Think reader, think big, make even
stories from afar have local impact." He said Knight
Ridder, the newspaper company whose original
owners created the foundation, has been forced to put
it up for sale to satisfy the demands of certain shareholders
"who have shown no interest in journalism or in
community."
Federal mine-safety agency unclear
on timeline for implementing new rules
The federal agency in charge of the safety of miners
has yet to say when it will implement new safety rules.
"The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration
said [Wednesday] it would enact an emergency rule to
require additional emergency oxygen supplies in underground
mines. MSHA also said it would require lifelines to
guide miners out of mines, immediate notification by
operators of accidents, and additional emergency training
for miners. But MSHA has yet to release a complete copy
of its plan and said they are not sure when a draft
will be completed," writes Ken Ward Jr. of The
Charleston Gazette.
MSHA critics noted most of the mine-safety items included
in the agency proposal have been on the table but ignored
or rejected for years. United Mine Workers
of America spokesman Phil Smith told
Ward, "We’re glad that MSHA is taking this
action, but there is more to do."
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., told Ward, "It’s
about time the agency responded. [But] these steps aren’t
enough. We need more inspectors. We need tougher enforcement
of mine safety violations." But, National
Mining Association President Kraig R. Naasz
told the newspaper, "We fully endorse the direction
MSHA has taken with these measures and look forward
to working toward their effective implementation."
(Read
more)
West Virginia fast tracks appointment
of temporary mine-safety director
West Virginia senators have hurriedly passed legislation
permitting the appointment of a person with no underground
coal mine experience to head the state's Office
of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training.
"The action is a step toward allowing Gov. Joe
Manchin to temporarily appoint a West Virginia
University professor to the post. Current law
requires the director ... to have five years of experience
as an underground coal miner. The new bill also allows
for five years of 'education, training or experience
in underground coal mining safety,'" writes Tom
Searles of The Charleston Gazette.
Manchin plans to appoint WVU professor James Mitchell
Dean, who conducts safety seminars at mines, to be director
until a permanent replacement can be found for Doug
Conaway, who announced he is stepping down. Sixteen
miners have been killed in four incidents this year.
(Read
more)
For an Associated Press report, The
sole survivor of the Sago [W.Va.] Mine disaster remains
"in a fog," but is interacting with family
members, click
here.
Wisconsin bill would ban intelligent
design from school science courses
Two Democratic Wisconsin lawmakers have introduced
a bill to ban public schools from teaching intelligent
design as science, saying "pseudo-science"
should have no place in the classroom.
"The proposal is the first of its kind in the
country, according to the National Conference of State
Legislatures, and comes as a debate over how to teach
the origins of human life rages in local school districts,"
writes Ryan J. Foley of The Associated Press.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison,
has acknowledged an uphill fight in a legislature where
Republicans control both houses. "The measure would
force material included in science curriculums to describe
only natural processes. The material also would need
to follow the definitions of science adopted by the
National Academy of Sciences,"
writes Foley.
Critics say intelligent design is a thinly disguised
religion without scientific basis. A Pennsylvania federal
judge agreed in December to strike down one school district's
policy. Berceau told reporters, "Our children must
be exposed to what science really is about ... free
of political or religious connotations." Under
her plan, parents could file lawsuits if their children's
science teachers went beyond the curriculum to teach
non-science-based theories, writes Foley. (Read
more)
Parents, students say proposed
Bible course in Alabama needs guidelines
Parents, students and a teacher in Athens, Ala., want
to know if a state bill allowing a Bible course in high
schools also mandates guidelines to teach the course
without violating the separation of church and state.
"Legislation introduced by Rep. Ken Guin, D-Carbon
Hill, and House Speaker, Seth Hammett, D-Andalusia,
is set for a vote this legislative session to allow
an elective course in public high schools called 'The
Bible and Its Influence,'" writes Jennifer Hill
of The News-Courier in Athens, Ala.
Individual school boards could then offer the course
in each jurisdiction if the bill passes. The bill does
not stipulate who would teach the course, nor does it
offer guidelines for qualifications of that teacher.
The Bible and its Influence, by Cullen Schippe-Chuck
Stetson, the only textbook named in the bill, examines
the Bible and its influences on art, literature and
culture, but has drawn opposition from conservatives
for its expansive approach.
High school science teacher Chris Faulkner told Hill,
“There is no way to bring this into the classroom
without getting into a discussion about belief. I think
that before this happens there needs to be a required
amount of hours of training. They’ve got to know
what they can say or can’t say. A kid is going
to raise his hand to ask ‘What do you believe?’
Can I tell them?” (Read
more)
Anthony Harbin, a youth leader at a local Baptist church,
told Hill, “Any exposure to the Bible is good
... if they can get in the basics ... with no denominational
bias it’s better than not getting anything.”
Colorado lawsuit seeks public
funding for Christian college scholarships
What started as an effort by Colorado Christian
University to make students eligible for state-funded
scholarships to pursue a "Christ-centered"
education could set a precedent on how states can regulate
the flow of government money to religious institutions.
"Colorado education officials decided that giving
scholarship money to students of the Lakewood-based
evangelical school would violate the principle of separation
of church and state as defined in Colorado law. The
denial prompted a federal lawsuit and national attention.
In December, the U.S. Department of Justice's
civil-rights division filed a friend-of-the-court brief
in the case -- and sided with the university,"
writes Alicia Caldwell of the Denver Post.
(Read
more)
University of Missouri-Kansas City
law professor Doug Linder told the Post, "It's
not too cynical to suggest that one of the important
constituencies the DOJ needs to keep happy is the evangelical
community." The Colorado Commission on
Higher Education, the agency being sued by
Colorado Christian, decided not to fight the intervention
by the DOJ. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans
United for Separation of Church and State,
told the newspaper that decision sounded "curiously
political." Lynn said 37 states restrict the flow
of state money for religious purposes, including schools.
To listen to National Public Radio's
Madeleine Brand interview with Slate magazine
legal analyst Dahlia Lithwick about the lawsuit on yesterday's
All Things Considered, click
here.
Wash. report: Wal-Mart, other
retailers cost state millions in health dollars
A report produced for two Washington state senators
says Wal-Mart and other large retailers
are pushing tens of millions of dollars per year in
health costs onto the state's taxpayers. "Supporters
of a bill that forces large companies to pay a minimum
amount for health benefits planned to use the new data
to press lawmakers for a vote on the measure,"
writes Curt Woodward of The Associated Press.
Wal-Mart officials and business groups have railed
against the proposal, saying it is meant to punish certain
businesses and will have no real effect for workers
who need help paying their hospital bills. The report
estimates that in 2004, Wal-Mart workers received more
than $22.7 million in taxpayer-funded health benefits.
More than $12.1 million of that came from Washington
state’s coffers, notes Woodward.
The report also includes public-health cost estimates
for three other large retail or grocery outlets: Safeway,
with more than $10.8 million spent on its workers; Fred
Meyer, with more than $7 million; and Target,
with more than $5.8 million. "Officials computed
an average monthly cost to the state of $182 for workers
on Washington’s Basic Health Plan. Each worker
who received Medicaid benefits was assumed to cost the
state an average of $291 per month," writes Woodward.
The report did not calculate the additional taxpayer
cost for dependent children of those workers, but said
costs would increase by 20 percent for each Medicaid-eligible
child supported by a worker, notes Woodward. (Read
more)
Oklahoma legislator says state's
rural areas 'REDI' for change
Oklahoma House Speaker Todd Hiett, an ardent Republican,
and other legislators have announced the Rural
Economic Development Initiative, a move to
bring residents and jobs into areas in decline.
The Come Home Oklahoma Act would enact a five-year
personal income tax exemption for any out-of-state person
or family who moves into a REDI county or community
and buys or builds a house for their primary residence.
C. J. Montgomery, president of one county chamber of
commerce, said, "Anything that helps rural Oklahoma,
that was the stance they said they’d take,"
writes James S. Tyree of the Community Newspaper
Holdings Inc. News Service.
The measure would cost the state $6 million in fiscal
year 2007 and $60 million by fiscal year 2013. But the
return would be much more, said Rep. Lee Denney of Cushing.
Lee told Tyree, "If they get a job here then they
buy a house and put their kids in schools here and they’re
part of the economy, paying property and sales taxes,
so it’s just a rippling effect." (Read
more)
Kentucky governor
reports progress in increasing broadband access
Citing an Eastern Kentucky teen who still faces technological
obstacles in his work as a Web designer, Gov. Ernie
Fletcher yesterday announced progress in expanding broadband
service.
Fletcher told reporters, "In the past two years,
more than 240,000 Kentucky households have gained access
to broadband service, and 77 percent of Kentucky households
can tap into the high-speed service, up from about 60
percent in 2003. The goal is to expand such availability
to 90 percent of Kentucky households by year's end,
and for full access in Kentucky by the end of 2007."
Kentucky has led the nation in growth of new subscribers
to high-speed Internet in the last two years, writes
Bruce Schreiner of The Associated Press.
Home broadband use in Kentucky has increased from 22
percent to 32 percent. The ConnectKentucky
progress report estimated full broadband development
would add 14,000 jobs statewide and $5 billion to Kentucky's
overall economy. (Read
more)
Teen-ager Jarad Fugate told reporters he craves more
speed for his Web design company, but high-speed broadband
Internet service hasn't reached the Eastern Kentucky
mountains. Instead, he uses a dial-up service with slower
access. The 17-year-old Breathitt County high school
junior said broadband service for his fledgling business,
"would mean I could publish my Web sites quicker."
Fugate received a technology award for his work. For
the Lexington Herald-Leader story,
by Jack Brammer, click
here.
Lines drawn in Vermont over
governor's exemption to state open records
A recently enacted exemption in Vermont's open records
law, created by the state's governor to cover the deliberations
of state officials, has riled a number of state legislators.
"A stream of state employees, lawyers and citizen
advocates hammered away during a public hearing, trying
to tear down an exemption to the open records law that
has been invoked by the administration of Gov. James
Douglas," writes Louis Potter of the Rutland
Herald.
The administration says the exemption is needed to
protect the deliberations of state workers. Administration
officials said if lawmakers want to do away with it,
"they must also curtail exemptions to public records
law in the Legislature and in municipal governments."
Former Vermont Attorney General Kimberly Cheney, who
wrote the state's public records law, called the "leveling
the playing field" argument "totally irrelevant."
He said the exemption "doesn't belong in the law
… it's a mistake," writes Potter.
Although executive privilege and attorney client privilege
protect other documents from public view in some cases,
the deliberative process exemption is not a part of
the state's statutes. The exemption was recognized by
a county judge last year, although the Vermont Supreme
Court has not weighed in on the question of deliberative
process yet, writes Potter. (Read
more)
Kentucky lawmakers seek way
to thwart thefts of key meth ingredient
A Western Kentucky farm store manager wants to help
lawmakers stop a common crime in the state's Western
grain belt, the theft of anhydrous ammonia, a chemical
used to make the illegal drug methamphetamine. But he
fears a solution could cause economic strain for farmers.
"[Jobee] Thrasher [has] some misgivings about
a bill to require farm supply distributors to add a
non-toxic dye to the product. Supporters see it as a
way to halt the pipeline in which the stolen fertilizer
winds up in meth labs," writes Bruce Schreiner
of The Associated Press.
Thrasher said he isn't convinced a product exists yet
to make anhydrous ammonia useless as a meth ingredient.
He also thinks the legislation would put an unfair financial
burden on the farm sector, notes Schreiner. He told
the House Judiciary Committee, "We don't think
it's fair for the retail industry and the farm community
to bear all that cost since it is a societal problem."
GloTell Spokesman Truitt Clements
told the committee, "If a thief steals anhydrous
with the GloTell in it, it turns [meth] into a gooey
mess." Clements said GloTell would cost about 82
cents an acre, or less than a half-penny a bushel. For
farm supply retailers, it would cost about $9 per ton
of anhydrous ammonia. Clements urged state lawmakers
to seek federal funding to offset the cost to farmers.
(Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 11: Kentucky Watershed
Watch conference for Licking River Basin
This conference will be held at Blue Licks
Battlefield State Park between Maysville and
Paris. For more information, and to register on-line,
go to http://kywater.org/watch.
Kentucky Watershed Watch
has more than 3,000 members who give
their time in an effort to improve waterways through
a coordinated campaign of water quality monitoring,
skills development and advocacy. More than 300 organizations
are providing volunteers, staff, technical assistance,
instruction and financial resources, and more than 100
leaders in eight local Watershed steering committees
carry out the work.
Feb. 14: Agricultural pesticides
safety workshop in Louisville
Agricultural pesticide applicators can attend a daylong
educational workshop Feb. 14 in Louisville, then spend
the next day browsing through the exhibits at the National
Farm Machinery Show.
The workshop will begin at 8:50 a.m. at the Executive
Inn, located just outside the gates of the
Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, home to the annual
machinery show. Information will be provided on regulatory
and safety issues, crop biosecurity for dealers, and
soybean integrated pest management issues and control
strategies, reports Laura Skillman of the University
of Kentucky College of Agriculture Communications
Department. (Read
more)
The meeting is sponsored by the University of Kentucky
Pesticide Safety Program, Kentucky IPM Program and the
AgriBusiness Association of Kentucky.
The cost of the workshop is $35. Registration will be
taken at the door but pre-registration is requested.
To register, contact Tod Griffin at (502) 226-1122 or
tgriffin@kyretail.com.
Wednesday,
Feb. 8, 2006
Some rural programs
would be trimmed under proposed federal budget
In his proposed budget, President Bush
is trying again to reduce funding for the Community
Development Block Grant program, which is popular in
small towns and inner cities, and to eliminate "food
packages for the poor sponsored by the Agriculture
Department," reports The Washington
Post.
The administration "has been unwilling to identify
the 141 programs the president is targeting for next
year, for a total savings of $15 billion," Goldstein
writes, then cites "budget documents and administration
sources" to report that the overwhelming majority
of the programs have been targeted in previous Bush
budgets, and the cuts were at least partly rejected
by Congress. "Just one in six of them are new targets,"
reporter Amy Goldstein writes.
Last year, the White House tried to eliminate the block-grant
program, now run by the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and combine it "with 17 smaller programs
in a new form at the Commerce Department,"
Goldstein writes. "The budget for next year would
keep the grants at HUD but significantly reduce their
funding." She also reports, "Among the reductions
the budget proposes for the first time is a 25 percent
cut in a rental housing program that provides grants
to build, rehabilitate and operate homes for people
who are elderly and poor." (Read
more)
The budget also calls for "deep cuts, and the
elimination in five years, of a program that has pumped
more than $2 billion into rural states hit by logging
cutbacks on federal land, but Jackson County officials
expressed cautious optimism over the fact the president’s
budget proposal included the program at all," writes
Anita Burke of the Mail Tribune in
Medford, Oregon. (Read
more)
Small daily newspapers still
prosper, but big boxes and broadband loom
"A tier of papers with circulations of 50,000
or less that is proving relatively resilient in the
face of a prolonged slump among larger papers,"
reports Joseph Hallinan in The Wall Street Journal.
"While big newspaper companies are increasingly
battling the Internet and other sources of information
and advertising, small papers have been able to keep
a hold on their markets, concentrating on local politics,
sports and community events. Most rural areas don't
yet have the same access to the Web that urban markets
do, protecting small papers, for now, from the Web competition
that has hurt major papers. Circulation at many smaller
papers is holding steady, even as their big-city brethren
hemorrhage readers."
Hallinan's object example is The Bismarck Tribune,
published in the state capital of North Dakota, a place
where population grew 11 percent from 1990 to 2000;
and its owner, Lee Enterprises of Davenport,
Iowa. The company has 58 dailies in 23 states, with
an average daily circulation of about 29,000. "That
puts Lee squarely in the heart of the country's newspaper
business," Hallinan notes, because 1,200 of the
nearly 1,500 U.S. dailies have a circulation of 50,000
or less.
"With little competition, the Tribune sells nearly
28,000 papers -- or about one copy for every two people.
By contrast . . . the Chicago Tribune, with
a daily circulation of about 586,000, sells one paper
for every five," Hallinan writes, quoting Pat Finken,
president of a Bismarck advertising agency, "Mass
media still is 'mass' in rural America."
The Tribune "has had little incursion, for instance,
from Craigslist, a free online advertising
service" that has hurt papers in larger markets,
Hallinan reports. But the paper worries about new Wal-Mart
stores that will sell food, hurting other grocers
who, unlike Wal-Mart, rely on newspaper ads, and Hallinan
notes that high-speed Internet access is gradually spreading
to rural America. "As more readers gain access
to faster Web service, many are likely to spend more
time reading and shopping on the Internet," he
writes. "And as readers go, so go advertisers."
(Read
more; subscription required)
Meth linked to 12 percent of
children in Missouri foster care system
Missouri officials are sounding the alarm with rising
numbers of children in their foster care system coming
from families that used and / or manufactured methamphetamine,
which is highly toxic and dangerously explosive in production
A recent study shows, "Nearly one of every eight
children in state custody near the end of last year
was there for a meth-related reason, according to an
analysis of Missouri’s foster care rolls,"
writes John Shultz of The Kansas City Star.
Missouri Department of Social Services
spokeswoman Deb Scott, told Shultz, "We have been
concerned for quite some time about the impact of meth
use on children coming into care, [but] ... we weren’t
able to [determine] what the impact of meth had been.”
The state plans to count children entering the system
each month to find out how serious the problem is, notes
Shultz. The state's first-ever accounting found about
12 percent, or 1,300, of the roughly 11,000 children
in Missouri custody were removed from their homes because
of meth, which includes children pulled because their
parents were cooking, selling or hooked on the drug.
(Read
more)
Safety agency implements
emergency mine rules following multiple deaths
Federal mine regulators have issued emergency
rules requiring extra oxygen and lifelines to help coal
miners escape from accidents underground.
"The federal Mine Safety
and Health Administration also said it is requiring
mine operators to notify the agency within 15 minutes
of an accident and training for miners on how to transfer
from one breathing device to another," writes James
R. Carroll of The Courier-Journal.
David Dye, acting head of MSHA, told the Louisville
paper, "It goes into effect immediately. These
are sort of bulletproof ways to increase the saving
of lives." An international representative with
the United Mine Workers of America, Butch
Odom of Morganfield, Ky., told Carroll, "It's something
long overdue. We've had problems with (oxygen) storage
and availability for a long time."
The rules were issued under emergency powers that MSHA
has used only twice since the mid-1980s. Dye told the
newspaper the details are being worked out and "he
doesn't know what it will cost mine companies to make
the changes but that the agency will be reasonable about
enforcement," writes Carroll.
The actions follow the deaths of 16 miners in West
Virginia, two in Kentucky mines, and one in Utah this
year. The West Virginia Legislature already has passed
a package of similar safety measures for coal mines
in that state. In Kentucky, legislation proposed in
the General Assembly also would require additional breathing
equipment and speedier accident notification. (Read
more)
For Ken Ward Jr.'s story ion this topic in The
Charleston [W.Va.] Gazette,
click
here.
Kentucky moves to enact new
coal mine safety rules, modeled after W.Va.
A modified version of West Virginia's new mine safety
law has cleared its first hurdle in Kentucky.
"The legislation, passed unanimously [in committee]
would subject coal mines to far more government oversight
and create fines of up to $100,000 for mine operators
who fail to report accidents quickly. Mine safety has
been pushed to the forefront in coal-producing states
because of a series of fatal accidents that have claimed
the lives of 19 miners so far this year," writes
Roger Alford of The Associated Press.
The National Conference of State Legislatures
said Illinois, New Mexico and Pennsylvania also are
considering stiffening mine safety laws. Kentucky led
the nation last year in the number of mine deaths, notes
Alford, now the wire service's correspondent in the
state capital of Frankfort after several years in Pikeville,
Ky., in the heart of the Appalachian coalfield. (Read
more)
West Virginia mine safety chief
leaving post, as planned before Sago blast
The head of West Virginia’s mine safety office
has announced plans to resign as soon as Gov. Joe Manchin
can name a replacement.
"Doug Conaway had been director of the state Office
of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training
since 2001. Conaway said he had planned to leave state
government in January, but agreed to stay on after the
Sago Mine disaster," writes Ken Ward Jr. of The
Charleston Gazette.
Conaway told Ward, “I’ve just decided
to move on, as I had planned to do earlier.” A
veteran of more than 20 years with agency, Conaway had
become director during the Wise administration and was
held over when Manchin took office last year, writes
Ward. United Mine Workers President
Cecil Roberts, told Ward, “We very much hate to
see Mr. Conaway leave this important position and we
wish him well in his future endeavors.” (Read
more)
Conaway was among the speakers at "Covering Coal,"
a Nov. 18 seminar for Central Appalachian journalists
at the Graduate College of Marshall University
in South Charleston. For a report on the conference,
held by the Institute for Rural Journalism and
Community Issues, click
here.
Cost of ethanol
production offsets some of its energy-alternative advantages
President Bush has called for greater
use of alternative energy sources, especially ethanol,
to lessen the nation's dependence on oil, but production
of ethanol may be more costly and not as advantageous
as it may appear reports The New York Times.
"For every gallon an ethanol manufacturing
plant produces, it uses the equivalent of almost two-fifths
of a gallon of fuel and that does not count the fuel
needed to make fertilizer for the corn, run the farm
machinery or truck the ethanol to market," writes
Matthew L. Wald of the Times. Wald notes "the use
of all that fossil fuel to make ethanol substantially
reduces its value as an alternative source of energy.
Not that ethanol is useless. For one thing, it is far
easier than natural gas to use in motor vehicles."
Ethanol production is expected to hit five billion
gallons this year, more than 3 percent of gasoline supplies,
and more ethanol distilleries are being built. In his
State of the Union message, notes Wald, President Bush
called for research on "cutting-edge methods of
producing ethanol." But, Wald writes, "if
ethanol is to realize its potential, its proponents
recognize they will have to develop new ways to make
it without using so much natural gas or coal, as some
distilleries are doing to save money," he writes.
(Read
more)
William A. Lee, general manager of Chippewa
Valley Ethanol, in Benson, Minn., and former
chairman of the Renewable Fuels Association,
told Wald, "We have to be headed to a more sustainable
future."
Burley tobacco auctions survive,
linking growers with small manufacturers
"As the first buying season without government
price supports concludes this month, tobacco auctions
are fewer in number -- but not gone," reports Greg
Hall in The Courier-Journal. Scott
Althauser, a buyer and vice president for the Burley
Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, told
the Louisville newspaper, "This year proved that
an auction can survive."
Some observers thought auctions would die along with
the federal program of production quotas and price supports,
which Congress repealed in late 2004. For several years
before that, growers had increasingly contracted with
major cigarette manufacturers rather than selling leaf
at auctions among companies, and the federal supports
virtually guaranteed growers a profit. Without them,
auctions pose more risk.
In the sales season now ending, the first without price
supports, contracts gave growers about 25 percent less
for their crop. Prices at the seven auction houses in
the state (down from 30) also dropped, but were slightly
higher than the contract prices.
"We definitely need" auctions, grower Allen
Goggin of Danville told Hall. "I think it's keeping
these larger (tobacco) companies in check a little bit.
It's giving smaller companies an opportunity to get
some tobacco, where they do not have to contract with
somebody for the whole stock. They can come in here
and take part of it or all of it, however they want
to do it." Hall reports Goggin "worries that
the contract buyers might become more tightfisted."
(Read
more)
Pentagon official
calls for caution on most costly river project in U.
S. history
A senior Pentagon official has urged the administration
to put the brakes on the costliest water navigation
and restoration project in history, suggesting the $3.1
billion plan for the upper Mississippi and Illinois
rivers may not be economically justified, reports Juliet
Eilperin of The Washington Post.
"John Paul Woodley Jr., the Army's assistant secretary
for civil works, [has] recommended the government proceed
with the project's design but hold off on construction
until the Army Corps of Engineers revises
its economic projections. Woodley wrote that there are
'flaws serious enough to limit the credibility and value
of the study within the policymaking process . . . especially
in the economic analysis,'" writes Eilperin.
The project has come under fire from environmental
and taxpayer groups as well as some congressional Republicans
and Democrats, notes Eilperin. Although shipping on
the upper Mississippi has been declining, the Corps
says it could increase by as much as 45 percent over
the next 20 years. The Senate may make construction
contingent on an increase in river traffic over the
next few years, she writes. (Read
more)
Pentagon spokesman Doug Lamont, told Eilperin, "We
want to be on solid ground that we are recommending
a project that is economically justified and we don't
know that right now." Corps spokesman David Hewitt
told Eilperin his agency will abide by whatever the
administration adopts.
Looking to start a farm? Resources,
programs available, say experts
Where there's a will there's a way, say agriculture
officials, for those seeking to start a farm.
"Organizations from three states shared information
about their programs [to help people start farms] at
the recent annual meeting of the Practical Farmers
of Iowa. Farmers talked about what helped them
when they started or changed their farming operations,"
writes Jean Caspers-Simmet of Agri News.
Kate Twohig, who works with the program, told Caspers-Simmet,
"The Land Stewardship Project's
Farm Beginnings Program is in its ninth year and works
with farmers throughout Minnesota. This year's class
has 40 participants, and for the first time a waiting
list exists."
Mike Holton works with Land Link,
a Center for Rural Affairs program
that matches beginning and retiring farmers in Nebraska.
He told Caspers-Simmet, "Nothing comes easy, but
if we can make that road a little less rocky, call on
us. We all have the desire to help people succeed.''
Iowa State University Extension Economist
Mike Duffy directs Iowa's Beginning Farmer Center. He
told Agri News a recent Iowa Farm Business Association
study found the top goal for the most profitable small
farming operations is to be a good neighbor and spend
time with family. (Read
more)
Agriculture Dept. finds way
to allow horse slaughter for food to continue
Congress last year approved a measure aimed at stopping
the slaughter of horses for food, but the U.S.
Department of Agriculture has found a way that
allows the practice to continue, reports James R. Carroll
of The Courier-Journal.
"Congress had eliminated funding for inspectors
at slaughterhouses for a year. But the Agriculture Department
said it would have the industry pay for inspections
at three foreign-owned plants in the United States that
export horse meat to Europe and Asia. U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield
of Kentucky helped sponsor the bill eliminating the
funding, and he said the Agriculture Department is flouting
Congress' intent," writes Carroll, for the Louisville
newspaper.
Whitfield, R-1st District, told Carroll, "I think
they're showing by this action they are determined to
proceed the way they want to proceed." Whitfield
is co-sponsoring legislation that would outlaw horse
slaughter for food, notes Carroll.
Steven Cohen, spokesman for USDA's Food Safety
and Inspection Service, told Carroll the spending
cutoff "didn't relieve the agency of obligations
under the law to perform inspections and guarantee meat
is safe and wholesome for human consumption." (Read
more)
West Virginia poor are poorest
in nation; gap with rich widens, says study
A new study reports heavily rural West Virginia has
the poorest families in the nation and the gap between
its rich and poor is growing faster in there than in
almost any other state.
"West Virginia ranks sixth in the growth in income
gap between the richest and poorest citizens in the
past 20 years, according to the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute,
two Washington, D.C., research groups, writes Scott
Finn of The Charleston Gazette.
Also, the study indicated the poorest families in West
Virginia are poorer than families in any other state
where the bottom 20 percent earned, on average, only
$13,208 per year, the lowest income in the nation. Twenty
years ago, five other states had more extreme poverty
than the Mountain State, notes Finn.
But surprisingly, the study shows the incomes of West
Virginia’s middle and upper class are relatively
high and compare favorably with incomes in other states.
The state’s richest 20 percent earn on average
$118,392, ranking the state 21st, and the next well-off
20 percent earn an average of $72,495, ranking the state
eighth, writes Finn.
Rick Wilson, director of the West Virginia
Economic Justice Project for the American
Friends Service Committee, told Finn, the findings
suggests that West Virginia’s low median income
is caused by the extreme poverty of some of its residents,
not by overall low wages.
Wilson told Finn, “I think we need to share our
prosperity or we’re going to become a totally
split society.” The study is based on U.S. census
data and tracks average incomes over three-year spans
in the early 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, writes Finn. (Read
more)
National Park Service favors
preserving Tennessee's Elkmont resort
The National Park Service has said
it would rather preserve a portion of the historic Elkmont
resort district in the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park near Gatlinburg, Tenn. than raze it or turn it
over to private developers.
The park would save 18 of 74 rustic wood-frame cabins
and assorted buildings in Elkmont, most predating the
1930s creation of the country's most-visited national
park on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, writes
Duncan Mansfield of The Associated Press.
Smokies Superintendent Dale Ditmanson told Mansfield,
"After careful study and consultation we have concluded
that this alternative strikes a balance between preserving
natural and cultural resources and protects the original
portion of the pre-park resort community.''
The preserved buildings have been vacant since the
last private long-term leases expired in 1992. They
would become a community museum with interpretative
exhibits tracing Elkmont's creation as a logging camp
in 1910 and later as a popular summer retreat for Knoxville
families, notes Mansfield. Two public hearings will
be held on the Park Service's plans in March and public
comments will be taken through May 7. A final decision
may come six months later, writes Mansfield. (Read
more)
Feds considering steps to protect
polar bears endangered by melting habitats
Amid concerns that global warming is melting away the
icy habitats where polar bears live, the federal government
is reviewing whether they should be considered a threatened
species, reports Dan Joling of
The Associated Press.
"The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service [has] said protection
may be warranted under the Endangered Species Act, and
[has begun] a review process to consider if the bears
should be listed. The agency will [study] population
distribution, habitat, effects of climate change on
the bears and their prey, potential threats from development,
contaminants and poaching during the next 60 days,"
writes Joling.
The decision comes after the Center
for Biological Diversity of Joshua Tree,
Calif., filed a petition last year that said polar bears
could become extinct by the end of the century. The
group, joined by the Natural Resources Defense
Council and Greenpeace, also
filed a federal lawsuit in December to seek federal
protections for the polar bear, notes Joling.
Kassie Siegel, lead author of the center's petition,
told Joling, "I think it's a very important acknowledgment
that global warming is transforming the Arctic and threatening
polar bears with extinction." Fish and Wildlife
Service spokesman Bruce Woods told Joling the petition
"contains sufficient information to convince us
that we need to do a more thorough analysis."
Polar bears under U.S. jurisdiction are found only
in Alaska and spend most of their lives on sea ice,
but the center said if current rates of decline in sea
ice continue, the summertime Arctic could be completely
ice-free well before the end of the century, writes
Joling. (Read
more)
SPJ says free speech,
fairness, sensitivity should guide Danish-cartoon coverage
The Society of Professional Journalists
says free speech, sensitivity to diverse views and its
Code of Ethics should guide coverage of news surrounding
the issue of Danish cartoons that have inflamed the
Muslim world and prompted riots.
"Central to this debate are differing
beliefs in free media. Protection of free media should
be first and foremost. The Society wholeheartedly believes
that bad or offensive speech is best countered with
more freedom of speech, not less," writes Christine
Tatum, SPJ president-elect.
Tatum continues, "SPJ urges journalists to honor
their obligation to weigh the news value of all views
against the offense those views may cause.The Society
urges journalists to review the code when deciding how
or whether to cover the controversy."
Tatum reviews applicable portions of the SPJ code in
her statement and says, "Some have deemed the
images too offensive to present and have said they are
able to produce news stories effectively without them.
Others have shown the cartoons not to titillate, but
to give people greater perspective about the
controversy and to invite their more informed opinions.
Neither course of action is necessarily inappropriate,
according to SPJ's Ethics Code," she writes. (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 11: Kentucky Watershed
Watch conference for Licking River Basin
This conference will be held at Blue Licks
Battlefield State Park between Maysville and
Paris. For more information, and to register on-line,
go to http://kywater.org/watch.
Kentucky Watershed Watch
has more than 3,000 members who give
their time in an effort to improve waterways through
a coordinated campaign of water quality monitoring,
skills development and advocacy. More than 300 organizations
are providing volunteers, staff, technical assistance,
instruction and financial resources, and more than 100
leaders in eight local Watershed steering committees
carry out the work.
Feb. 14: Agricultural pesticides
safety workshop in Louisville
Agricultural pesticide applicators can attend a daylong
educational workshop Feb. 14 in Louisville, then spend
the next day browsing through the exhibits at the National
Farm Machinery Show.
The workshop will begin at 8:50 a.m. at the Executive
Inn, located just outside the gates of the
Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, home to the annual
machinery show. Information will be provided on regulatory
and safety issues, crop biosecurity for dealers, and
soybean integrated pest management issues and control
strategies, reports Laura Skillman of the University
of Kentucky College of Agriculture Communications
Department. (Read
more)
The meeting is sponsored by the University of Kentucky
Pesticide Safety Program, Kentucky IPM Program and the
AgriBusiness Association of Kentucky.
The cost of the workshop is $35. Registration will be
taken at the door but pre-registration is requested.
To register, contact Tod Griffin at (502) 226-1122 or
tgriffin@kyretail.com.
Tuesday,
Feb. 7, 2006
Emergency crews are no longer
'10-4,' but instead just 'OK' in plain English
Emergency responders nationwide are abandoning the
system of codes that includes 10-4 ("affirmative")
and 10-20 ("location") and will use plain
English.
"A federal emergency response plan, generally
referred to as NIMS (National Incident Management System)
says local emergency responders could lose federal grant
funds unless plain English is used in all communications.
Disaster funds through FEMA could also be lost unless
the directive is in place by October," reports
the Grayson County [Ky.] News-Gazette.
Emergency personnel will drop the numbers from the
code and use the descriptions instead. The change is
"designed to make sure an officer from New York
City assigned to a Kentucky emergency, for example,
would have no trouble understanding a local communication,"
notes the newspaper. Codes differ among some states.
(Read
more)
Future of legendary W.Va. music
hall and its Jamboree USA in limbo
The fate of a famed music hall in Wheeling, W.Va.,
and its storied country music show are in limbo following
a change of ownership, reports Keri Brown of West
Virginia Public Radio.
"For 78 years the Capitol Music Hall
in Wheeling has been a landmark in the city. It’s
home to Jamboree USA, where many of the most legendary
names in country music have performed," says Brown.
The changes started in December when the hall changed
owners.
There were several layoffs, and the gift shop closed.
General Manager Kelly Tucker Jones told Brown, “Our
company [has] started to re-evaluate locations, and
that includes Capitol Music Hall. We’re still
keeping local performances that are booked. The symphony
will finish out season. We’re still open, just
not running in same capacity…at this point there
are no new shows scheduled.”
Radio station WWVA, which has been
broadcasting Jamboree USA from the Capitol Music Hall
since 1933, is owned by Clear Channel Communications.
Clear Channel owned the hall until December, when it
transferred the venue to an independent, spin-off company
called Live Nation. Live Nation officials
in Los Angeles will not release their plans for the
hall, reports Brown. To hear the report, click
here, then scroll down and click on the speaker
icon.
Forty states re-examining eminent
domain after Supreme Court decision
A U.S. Supreme Court decision has brought new attention
to local and state governments' ability to seize property
through the use of eminent domain, and 40 states are
re-examining their laws, reports Robert Tanner of The
Associated Press.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 last June that New London,
Conn., had the authority to take homes for a private
development project. Governments often use eminent domain
to build public projects, but for decades the court
has been expanding the definition of public use, allowing
cities to employ eminent domain to eliminate blight,
notes Tanner. The high court also noted states can ban
the practice.
"Right now government ... is using eminent domain
to take people's private properties and hand it over
to another owner. It's really putting a hole in the
American dream. Ownership of private property plays
such a large role in that dream," New Jersey state
Sen. Diane Allen, a Republican who has bipartisan support
for her legislation to limit eminent-domain power, told
Tanner. Alabama, Texas, Delaware and Ohio have already
passed laws to restrict eminent domain. (Read
more)
In a related story, Mark Scolforo of AP reports from
Harrisburg, Pa., "A city agency violated the separation
of church and state when it seized a woman's home to
help a religious group build a private school in a blighted
Philadelphia neighborhood, a state appeals court ruled
Monday." (Read
more)
Colo., N.M. residents seek protection
from lessors of federal minerals
"Since the mid-90s, swarms of new residents have
bought land and built homes in Western Colorado. Most
did not realize they were not also acquiring the mineral
rights beneath them. This is common, though, across
the west. It's the legacy of a law that Congress passed
almost a century ago," reported Kirk Siegler of
Aspen Public Radio on "Morning
Edition" of National Public Radio.
In an effort to find new sources of energy, the Bush
administration is selling those mineral rights to private
companies. In Garfield County, Colorado, four hours
west of Denver, residents are clashing with companies
that have leased mineral rights because natural gas
rigs are starting to surround homes. "There's nothing
preventing energy companies from doing this," noted
Siegler.
"Colorado lawmakers are debating a measure aimed
at reforming those laws. The bill would require energy
companies to work out agreements with surface land owners
and pay them for any damages caused by drilling. In
cases where the two sides can't reach an agreement,
companies would have to post a bond of at least $25,000
and that money would pay for any damages," reported
Siegler. (Click
here to listen)
New Mexico is considering similar legislation, and
Wyoming passed a bill last year that protects landowners,
though not to the extent proposed in Colorado. If oil
and gas companies start drilling and damage property
in Wyoming, landowners are entitled to damages, but
companies are able to post as little as $2,000 bonds,
notes Jeff Brady of NPR. (Click
here to listen)
Mine-safety agency sues Kentucky
coal company seeking fine payments
In the wake of a rash of coal-mine fatalities and questions
about oversight of the industry, federal regulators
have sued a Kentucky coal operator to collect unpaid
fines for safety violations and get him to post a bond
to ensure payment.
Stanley Osborne, along with his two Pike County companies,
Misty Mountain Mining and Midgard
Mining, have allegedly been non-payers of fines
totaling $80,883 over the last three years, reports
James R. Carroll of The Courier-Journal.
"In addition, Osborne's mines have not paid more
than $200,000 in civil penalties since the 1980s for
safety violations, according to the suit" the Mine
Safety and Health Administration filed in federal
court in Kentucky,\ he writes.
MSHA called the action against Osborne and his mines
"an unusual and precedent-setting lawsuit,"
notes Carroll. Former federal and state mining official
Tony Oppegard told Carroll, "I hope it's something
they'll use in the future, but the skeptic in me says
that MSHA has come under such heavy criticism lately
they felt they had to do something." (Read
more)
Critics charge proposed MSHA
budget increase not enough to
protect miners
President Bush wants to increase funding for the nation’s
mine-safety agency, but critics charge the additional
money is nowhere near enough to do the job of protecting
coal miners.
"Bush asked Congress to give the U.S.
Mine Safety and Health Administration about
$288 million in the 2007 financial year, an increase
of 3.6 percent from the previous year. Under the proposal,
MSHA’s coal enforcement branch would be able to
fill five of the 190 staff jobs that have been eliminated
over the last five years," writes Ken Ward Jr.
of The Charleston Gazette.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., told Ward, “This
budget does little more than offer the status quo.”
MSHA trainer Don Conrad told Ward, "I don’t
think any of our mine operators want to see another
explosion or even another fatality. They’ve really
taken up the banner and have done above and beyond what
the minimum regulations are.” (Read
more)
So far in 2006, 16 coal miners have died in four separate
accidents in West Virginia, two have died in Kentucky
and one in Utah. West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin has
pushed through landmark mine rescue and safety laws,
and other states are following his lead. Byrd and other
members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation
have proposed national legislation similar to Manchin’s
bill.
Kentucky coal firm wants to
hire Hispanics, cites declining 'work ethic'
A Pike County, Kentucky, coal company wants to hire
Hispanic miners, citing drug problems and a "declining
work ethic" among Eastern Kentucky natives.
"Current Kentucky law requires that all miners
be fluent in English for safety reasons, but the president
of Sidney Coal Co., a subsidiary of
Massey Energy, has asked for assistance
in jumping that legal hurdle. A document distributed
at a late December board meeting by Sidney Coal Co.
President Charlie Bearse struck a raw nerve in some
quarters for the degrading terms it used regarding Kentucky
miners," writes Lee Mueller of the Lexington
Herald-Leader.
Gary Ball of Inez, a former United Mine Workers
of America miner who now edits a local newspaper,
told Mueller, "What they want is somebody to work
for $6 an hour. What else could it be?"
UMWA official Steve Earle of Madisonville told Mueller,
"I think [hiring Hispanics] is going to ... create
problems all over the coalfields and we don't need that
at this juncture." Kentucky Coal Association
President Bill Caylor told Mueller, "It's really
is just a matter of time. I think this is just the first
shot across the bow in trying to adopt this." (Read
more)
UPDATE: Bearse, who declined to comment
for Mueller's story, said in a letter to the Herald-Leader
after it appeared that he left "a wrong impression"
and "could have used better words" in his
letter to the Kentucky Mining Board,
which voted in December to table his proposal. "I
have worked with over 1,000 coal miners in East Kentucky
and they are as good as they come," he told the
newspaper. "The challenge is that there currently
aren't enough of them." (Read
follow-up story)
Bush's budget would cut farmers'
crop payments, raise some other areas
Farmers could see cuts in their income under President
Bush's proposed spending plan for the federal government
for the upcoming year.
Bush's "recommended budget for the period beginning
October first calls for a five percent reduction in
crop payments to farmers," reports WQAD-TV,
NewsChannel 8 in Moline, Ill., in a staff-and-wire
report. That means 5 percent cuts in payments to farmers
from all commodity programs, explains the station. Bush
says that should save almost $5 billion over 10 years.
Such items as marketing loans, direct and counter-cyclical
payments or Milk Income Loss Compensation would be affected.
(Read
more)
Meanwhile, USDA Secretary Michael Johanns is emphasizing
the areas that saw budget increases in the 2007 plan,
including energy, conservation, crop insurance and food
safety. The areas that were targeted for spending cuts
were price support and commodity program, reports Gary
Truitt of Brownfield, which describes
itself as "America's Ag-News source." (Read
more)
Johanns noted Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) payments
reached a historical high of $20 billion in 2005 and
were forecast to reach $21 billion in 2006. The budget
proposal calls for a cut to $19 billion for 2007. This
is the second year in a row the Bush administration
has proposed cuts in farm programs.
Manufactured homes can be good
investment if you own land under yours
"For most Americans, home ownership is the single
best shot at accumulating wealth [but] the nation's
10 million manufactured home owners are often treated
as second-class entities and viewed not as a solution
to affordable housing needs but as a problem to be gotten
rid of," writes Thomas D. Rowley in his latest
column for the Rural Policy Research Institute.
But, Rowley notes, "Done right, manufactured housing
could make homeowners out of many more folks who can’t
otherwise afford a home." The key is that owners
of such homes own the ground on which they sit, Paul
Bradley, vice president of the New Hampshire
Community Loan Fund, told Rowley.
Bradley's group helped create the first cooperatively
owned mobile-hone park in New Hampshire and helped residents
purchase land. More than 70 other co-ops have cropped
up around the state. Bradley cites research showing
units in resident-owned parks are selling faster and
at prices averaging 12 percent higher than units in
land-lease parks, notes Rowley. For this and previous
columns click
here.
Banks desert small New Mexico
towns, create concerns for residents
Citizens in the tiny northeast New Mexico village of
Roy (pop. 310) are wondering if they will still be a
town without their one and only bank. Wells
Fargo Bank recently informed business and residential
customers "the local branch, which has been operating
continuously as a bank since before Roy was a town and
before Harding County was a county, will close April
28," writes Andrew Webb of The Albuquerque
Journal.
Wells Fargo also announced its branches in three other
small communities will close in April, notes Webb. Annette
Esquibel, owner of the only eatery in Roy told Webb,
"Our business banks there. It's the only bank in
town. We're all just kind of shocked." Local officials
worry about Roy's future if its residents have to drive
50 miles to the nearest bank in Springer to do their
business, writes Webb.
Mary Ellen Menapace, who has lived in Roy for 60 of
her 87 years, told Webb, "A lot of people get their
Social Security checks, cash it at the bank, and come
in and pay their water bills. It would be a terrible
inconvenience for them to have to go elsewhere."
(Read
more)
Ex-Kansas City Star editor,
baseball team exec, dies of Lou Gehrig’s disease
Joe McGuff, former editor of The Kansas City
Star and member of the board of directors for
the Kansas City Royals baseball team,
has died. He was 79.
McGuff, who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease
in 1999, died at his home. He started at the paper in
1948 as a sports reporter and became a columnist in
1966, covering the Kansas City sports scene for 38 years,
reports The Associated Press. (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 11: Kentucky Watershed
Watch conference for Licking River Basin
This conference will be held at Blue Licks
Battlefield State Park between Maysville and
Paris. For more information, and to register on-line,
go to http://kywater.org/watch.
Kentucky Watershed Watch
has more than 3,000 members who give
their time in an effort to improve waterways through
a coordinated campaign of water quality monitoring,
skills development and advocacy. More than 300 organizations
are providing volunteers, staff, technical assistance,
instruction and financial resources, and more than 100
leaders in eight local Watershed steering committees
carry out the work.
Feb. 14: Agricultural pesticides
safety workshop in Louisville
Agricultural pesticide applicators can attend a daylong
educational workshop Feb. 14 in Louisville, then spend
the next day browsing through the exhibits at the National
Farm Machinery Show.
The workshop will begin at 8:50 a.m. at the Executive
Inn, located just outside the gates of the
Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, home to the annual
machinery show. Information will be provided on regulatory
and safety issues, crop biosecurity for dealers, and
soybean integrated pest management issues and control
strategies, reports Laura Skillman of the University
of Kentucky College of Agriculture Communications
Department. (Read
more)
The meeting is sponsored by the University of Kentucky
Pesticide Safety Program, Kentucky IPM Program and the
AgriBusiness Association of Kentucky.
The cost of the workshop is $35. Registration will be
taken at the door but pre-registration is requested.
To register, contact Tod Griffin at (502) 226-1122 or
tgriffin@kyretail.com.
Monday,
Feb. 6, 2006
Military recruiting effort encounters
low test scores, problems filling ranks
The Army, which relies heavily on poor, rural areas
for its recruiting, met last quarter goals for 2005,
but more than 10 percent of the recruits in one month
had scores near the bottom of the scale. That's more
than double the annual 4 percent limit set by the Department
of Defense.
Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, stationed at Fort Knox,
Ky., is the man in charge of retooling the recruiting
program. He told Damien Cave of The New York
Times the Army's goals were smaller for the
quarter with recruiters sending 2,697 fewer active-duty
recruits to basic training from October to December
than they did during that period in 2004. But, he said,
the Army's goals for summer have been increased to make
up the difference.
University of Maryland military sociologist
David Segal told Cave, "Recruiters are having a
tougher and tougher time. The economy is growing, and
there is more and more opposition being voiced by parents
and at high schools." General Bostick told Cave
he was optimistic the Army would find, recruit and enlist
the 105,500 soldiers it needs this year. (Read
more)
He said recruiters had already signed up half of the
10,450 active-duty soldiers the Army hoped to send to
basic training in July, the month with the largest quota.
Though at least 20 percent will drop out before boot
camp, he said, it is a sign of "steady improvement"
nationwide. For The Rural Blog's initial report
on the Army's rural recruiting base, click
here.
Smart Board technology
gives edge to rural schools that can afford it
Rural public schools, often under-funded, usually need
every edge they can get, and one school in East Tennessee
has found a way to enhance its resources with quantifiable
and popular effect.
Sarah Rippetoe, a science and reading teacher at Sevierville
Middle School, uses the Smart Board interactive
system. Founded in 1991, it uses a large projector and
an interactive whiteboard "where students can see
colorful, movable images and diagrams, physically interacting
with the material by moving letters, numbers, words
and pictures with their fingers," writes J.J. Kindred
of The Mountain Press.
Rippetoe told Kindred, "Before I got the Smart
Board, about six students in every class would raise
their hand and participate in a class discussion. When
I got the Smart Board, it went up ... to every single
hand, because they can't wait to come up here."
About 30 teachers have been trained to use the technology,
and each system costs about $5,000. Other schools in
Sevier County have not been able to afford it. (Click
here to read more. For information from Smart
Technologies, click
here.
Rural Kentucky counties exploring
high-speed wireless Internet access
As high-speed wireless Internet access
is being hailed as an economic development must for
rural areas, some Western Kentucky counties are fast-tracking
in that direction.
"Webster County's fiscal court authorized
a study of the economics of offering high-speed Internet
service. Judge-Executive James Townsend wants a wireless
high-speed network to cover the county, which has about
14,000 residents. It would be the first such network
in Kentucky," writes Jim Malone of The
Courier-Journal's soon-to-be-close
Western Kentucky Bureau. Daviess County, the seat of
which is Owensboro, Kentucky's third-largest city, is
considering a similar plan.
Brian Mefford, president of ConnectKentucky,
a coalition of technology-focused public agencies and
private companies, told Malone, "Broadband is pretty
much the equivalent of electricity for a company looking
to locate anywhere."
Webster County is scrambling to attract and create
businesses, notes Malone. The county's $34,097 median
household income is $2,566 below the state average of
$36,663. Unemployment in December was 4.7 percent, less
than the state average of 6 percent. Many in Webster
commute to neighboring counties for jobs. Townsend also
told Malone, "Every student in this county should
have an equal chance to get on the Internet from their
home, but they don't."
A ConnectKentucky survey found 22 percent of the state's
homes with children younger than 18 had no Internet
access, and 23 percent lacked computers. The statewide
survey also found overall computer and Internet use
in Kentucky is growing, compared with a similar 2004
survey. Thirty-two percent of Kentucky adults still
lack a computer, down from 35 percent in 2004, writes
Malone. (Read
more)
Pager tests OK'd, rescue chambers
ignored; W.Va. mine-safety assets strained
The Bush administration said Friday it will review
20-year-old paging devices to see if they should be
required in all U.S. coal mines, reports Ken Ward Jr.
in the first of a trilogy of mine safety reports over
the weekend in The Charleston Gazette.
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration
said it is "evaluating and testing" personal
emergency devices, or PEDs ... [that would] allow miners
to receive a text message warning them during a mine
fire or explosion. MSHA said it also will examine a
miner 'tracker' device that helps rescuers locate workers
trapped underground. The announcement comes two years
after MSHA rejected a proposal that it mandate the PED
systems in coal mines across the country," writes
Ward. (Read
story 1)
Pointing to the recent survival of coal miners in Tasmania
and Canada who waited for rescue in "safety chambers,"
following explosions, Ward wrote Saturday, "All
kinds of mines around the world use various types of
airtight, reinforced boxes — stocked with food,
water and oxygen supplies — to protect miners
who become trapped underground."
The U.S. Department of Interior, which enforced mine-safety
rules until 1977, studied the issue but never took action.
Tony Oppegard, the former chief prosecutor for Kentucky’s
mine safety agency and an MSHA adviser during the Clinton
administration, told Ward, "To me, it’s sort
of a stunning revelation that something that could have
saved these lives has been in the law for 36 years,
and has never been used. It’s difficult to explain
and it’s difficult to understand why." (Read
story 2)
And, Ward noted Sunday, "West Virginia’s
string of fatal coal-mining accidents is starting to
strain the resources of the small state agency charged
with keeping miners safe and healthy." Director
Doug Conaway, told Ward, "We’ve never been
stretched or taxed this thin in my 20 years here."
(Read
story 3)
Conaway and Ward were among the speakers at "Covering
Coal," a November conference held for Appalachian
journalists by the Institute for Rural Journalism
and Community Issues. To read an updated report
on the conference and the issues of coal in the region,
click here.
Call for national
mine safety 'stand down' mostly 'PR,' says New York
Times
Federal mine-safety officials, faced with the death
of two more West Virginia miners last week, have asked
the coal industry to "stand down for safety"
today, but editors at The New York Times
opine, "This smacks of public relations more than
worker protection."
"The safety agency, notorious for its political
appointees from the coal industry, is also suddenly
finding more inspectors for West Virginia. The tragedies
have laid bare the passivity and pro-industry bias in
the Bush administration's stewardship of the Mine
Safety and Health Administration. Last month,
the chief of the now-galvanized agency ... walked out
of a Congressional hearing into the initial West Virginia
deaths, even as shocked lawmakers still had key questions
unanswered," the newspaper wrote Sunday in an editorial
headlined, "Tolerating Death in the Mines."
"The administration should join West Virginia
lawmakers calling for tougher inspections, penalties
and safety equipment under federal law. The deaths showed
that companies have too much leeway in running rescue
efforts, and too little concern for crackdowns by the
federal mine agency," it writes. (Read
more)
Appalachian publisher, citing
personal experience, bemoans drug 'plague'
Marty Backus, publisher of the thrice-weekly Appalachian
News-Express in Pikeville, Ky., writes in his
Sunday column that when he mentioned to a local store
its need for more clerks, one clerk "agreed but
said the problem was people just don't want to work
anymore, or they're on drugs. No matter what you think,
she was saying more truth than what a lot of us want
to admit."
Complaints about the welfare system are decades old.
Drugs are a newer concern in the mountains. "We
have a very serious problem in just about every corner
of this county," Backus writes. "I know it's
a problem because we've had some experience right here
at this paper. We've had a lot of applicants who have
failed this test, and you know it's bad when your press
foreman comes in and celebrates because he finally had
one of his applicants pass the drug test."
Backus concludes, "Folks, I hate writing about
something which happens here in this paper, but it's
everywhere: coal mines, schools, offices, stores, etc.
It's a very serious plague on us all and has affected
each and everyone of us in one way or another. The best
thing going now is UNITE, which takes anonymous tips
on drug dealers and such and then the law busts them.
This is a start, but it's not enough. We need to get
to the big guys who supply and deliver." (Read
more)
UNITE stands for Unlawful Narcotics
Investigations, Treatment and Education, a federally
funded program that serves 29 counties in Southern and
Eastern Kentucky. For its Web site, click
here.
Authorities shut down 2,218
meth labs in Missouri last year
Missouri's meth lab seizures totaled 2,218 in 2005,
and the state may again rank No. 1 in the U.S.
"In 2004, Missouri had the dubious distinction
of being far ahead of any other state in total meth
lab seizures. Of the 2004 nationwide total of 16,326
meth lab incidents, Missouri had 2,788, more than 1,000
ahead of the next state. This was Iowa with 1,300. Next
was Tennessee with 1,273, followed by Indiana with 1,040
and Illinois with 1,005. These were the only states
with totals higher than 1,000, and Washington State
was next with 791," writes Bev Darr of the Hannibal
Courier Post.
The statistics on meth lab seizures provided by the
Missouri State Highway Patrol are posted on a map on
its Web
site. Click on "patrol divisions," "drug
and crime control" and "meth statistics."
(Read
more)
Will Wal-Mart be your farm banker?
One magazine explores that question
A prominent farm commodities magazine is examining
plans by mega-retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
to enter the world of banking, with particular interest
in how that would affect the farm world.
"Guess who is in the crosshairs of Wal-Mart’s
future strategic plan. Yes, banks and possibly the Farm
Credit System. Currently the FDIC is reviewing Wal-Mart’s
application for a bank charter. Why would Wal-Mart want
to enter banking and possibly become an agricultural
lender?" writes David Kohl of The Corn
and Soybean Digest.
In the U.S., there are over 7,500 banking institutions
and nearly 100 Farm Credit associations and 2,500-plus
banks delivering credit with an emphasis on agriculture
and rural areas, notes Kohl. "Wal-Mart’s
business model is driven by taking inefficiencies out
of the distribution system. Their planners feel that
the banking system is very disjointed and fragmented
with duplicative procedures and processes that result
in inefficiency in the delivery of credit," writes
Kohl. (Read
more)
Lack of federal resources, guidance
delaying states' bird-flu readiness efforts
The nation's 5,000 state and local health departments
are rushing to plan for an epidemic of avian flu, but
are hobbled by a lack of money and guidance from the
federal government.
"Only a few places, particularly Seattle and New
York City, have made significant progress, experts say.
Most departments say they expect to be unprepared for
at least a year," writes Donald G. McNeil, Jr.
of The New York Times. Jeffrey Levi,
a flu expert at the Trust for America's Health,
a nonpartisan health policy group, told McNeil, "It's
a depressing situation. We are way, way behind."
Of the $7.1 billion President Bush requested for fighting
avian flu, Congress has provided only $3.3 billion for
this year. Today, Bush is expected to ask for an additional
$2.65 billion for 2007. The bulk is for vaccine and
drug research, while only $350 million is for local
health departments, writes McNeil. Dr. Jeffrey S. Duchin,
of the Seattle and King County health department, told
McNeil, "That $350 million sounds like a lot, but
divided among 5,000 health departments, it's only $70,000
each."
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Director Dr. Julie L. Gerberding told McNeil, "If
we prepare now, we may be able to decrease the death
rate and keep society functioning." (Read
more)
North Carolina
tobacco farmers voice anger over shift in USDA payments
Some angry North Carolina farmers say the U.S.
Department of Agriculture is violating the
intent of Congress for the tobacco buyout.
"About 35 Eastern North Carolina farmers attended
a [recent] meeting for legal advice on the buyout program
... The buyout is paid for by assessments on tobacco
companies and is not taxpayer-funded. The assessments
on tobacco companies are altered quarterly, so that
the tobacco companies' assessments are reduced if the
payments to the producers are reduced," writes
the Rocky Mount Telegram.
Zebulon farmer Jimmy Lee told reporter Tom Murphy that
quota flue-cured and burly tobacco producers should
have netted $3 per pound, multiplied by the 2002 base
quota level of the producer. "The government's
changes to the equation mandated by Congress in the
tobacco buyout statute resulted in farmers receiving
significantly less money," Lee said.
The federal government, as of September, has paid almost
$385 million to North Carolina farmers with the first
installment of checks from the $9.6 billion buyout of
tobacco quotas. Under the buyout, quota owners will
get $7 a pound over 10 years for the quota they owned
in 2002. Farmers will get $3 a pound for the leaf they
grew, notes Murphy. (Read
more)
Does election in Canada indicate
an urban-rural divide like that in the U.S.?
Last month's election in Canada made some
observers wonder if the nation's politics are becoming
more like those in the U.S., which is divided "between
a Christian and family-focused rural America versus
liberal, if not libertine, urban and suburban centres
along either coast," Rudyard Griffiths, executive
director of The Dominion Institute,
writes in The Toronto Star.
The parallel is "tempting," Griffiths acknowledges,
because the Conservative "Tory" Party failed
to win any seats in the major cities of Toronto, Montreal
or Vancouver. "The fragile-minority Parliament
we elected can be seen as reflecting not only a more
regionalized country but also a nation divided between
a rural and conservative hinterland versus an ultraliberal
and urban central Canada," Griffiths writes.
"The thinking here is that election issues with
a moral dimension provided the Tories with their strong
showing in rural ridings while scaring urban voters
into backing the 'kinder and gentler' Liberals. Not
only is this too easy an explanation by half, it's rank
speculation," Griffiths concludes, citing research
showing that "of the personal characteristics Statistics
Canada found most often influenced our values
(age, education, income, gender, etc.), living in a
rural or urban setting is among the least significant."
"Liberal success in the cities and the Tory victory
in the countryside wasn't the result of a U.S.-style
contest of pitchforks versus pinstripes," Griffiths
writes. "How we voted had far more to do with our
income or being born in Canada, as opposed to having
a rural or urban identity." (Read
more) The Dominion Institute says it was founded
in 1997 "by a group of young people concerned about
the erosion of a common memory in Canada." To learn
more about it, click
here. Its site has an American Myths page on "what
Canadians think they know about the U.S.A." For
that page, click
here.
Creationism vs. evolution debate
splits legislature in strongly religious Utah
A Senate bill that would "require science teachers
to offer a disclaimer when introducing lessons on evolution
... has deeply divided lawmakers. Some leaders in both
parties have announced their opposition to the bill,
and most lawmakers say that with less than a month left
in the legislative session, its fate remains a tossup,"
writes Kirk Johnson of The New York Times.
About 90 percent of the elected officials in the state
are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, "Prayers are commonplace,
and lawmakers speak of their relationship with God in
ordinary conversation," writes Johnson.
State Rep. Stephen H. Urquhart, a Republican and the
majority whip, said he would vote against the bill.
He told legislators, "I don't think God has an
argument with science." The bill has passed in
the Senate and is predicted to pass in the House.
State Rep. James A. Ferrin, a Republican and one of
the bill's sponsors, told Johnson, "It's not about
belief, it's about not overstepping what we know."
Opponents of the bill, including State Sen. Peter C.
Knudson, the Republican majority leader, told Johnson,
"Of course it's about religion." (Read
more)
I Spy: Newspaper
illuminates domestic-spying hot spot in West Virginia
"Sugar Grove is the middle of nowhere, between
two mountain ranges in a sparsely populated corner of
West Virginia, where people wave to everyone who drives
by. It's a town seemingly with no secrets, but it's
now at the center of a political firestorm in the battle
between national security and personal privacy,"
writes Chris Winston of The Roanoke Times.
In a good example of enterprising journalism, the 98,687-circulation
newspaper explored whether a "naval base just five
miles up the road and its work on satellite communications
may not have anything to do with 'ship-to-shore' communications
as nearby residents have believed for years."
"Sugar Grove, where it is believed the NSA intercepts
phone calls and e-mails made between the eastern United
States and suspected terrorists overseas, probably will
not be mentioned while senators debate whether protecting
the lives of Americans is more important than protecting
their civil liberties," writes Winston. Hearings
begin Monday in Washington into whether President Bush
used the network to abuse executive powers. In Sugar
Grove, a community just 133 miles northeast of Roanoke,
there is no debate. "If I can't do anything about
it, I don't worry about it," local store owner
John Bowers told Winston.
In Sugar Grove, population 23, the Navy base supplies
about 200 jobs and customers for local businesses. "To
the locals, living near the base is as normal as living
near the Appalachian Trail or the Blue Ridge Parkway,"
notes Winston. Posted with his story is a podcast in
which Assistant Managing Editor Dwayne Yancey speaks
him about his story. (Read
more)
Southern Growth
Policies board launches development-technology survey
The Southern Growth Policies Board
has launched its 2006 on-line
survey to poll Southern citizens on their attitudes
towards innovation and technology, and their role in
the economic future of the region.
"Share your opinions and ideas on strategies for
increasing the role of innovation and technology ...
and the potential of technology to create jobs and wealth
in our communities," write survey organizers. "The
12-question survey only takes a few minutes to complete,
and your thoughts will be included in Southern Growth's
2006 Report on the Future of the South and in presentations
at the Southern Innovation Summit conference on June
4-6, 2006 in New Orleans, La.," they add.
Some sample questions: "On a scale from one to
ten, how important is technology to the economic future
of the South? On a scale of one to ten, how important
is technology to your economic future? On a scale of
one to ten, how important is technology to the South's
manufacturing sector? How much do you know about technology?"
To learn more about the summit conference and the policies
board, click
here.
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 11: Kentucky Watershed
Watch conference for Licking River Basin
This conference will be held at Blue Licks
Battlefield State Park between Maysville and
Paris. For more information, and to register on-line,
go to http://kywater.org/watch.
Kentucky Watershed Watch
has more than 3,000 members who give
their time in an effort to improve waterways through
a coordinated campaign of water quality monitoring,
skills development and advocacy. More than 300 organizations
are providing volunteers, staff, technical assistance,
instruction and financial resources, and more than 100
leaders in eight local Watershed steering committees
carry out the work.
Feb. 14: Agricultural pesticides
safety workshop in Louisville
Agricultural pesticide applicators can attend a daylong
educational workshop Feb. 14 in Louisville, then spend
the next day browsing through the exhibits at the National
Farm Machinery Show.
The workshop will begin at 8:50 a.m. at the Executive
Inn, located just outside the gates of the
Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, home to the annual
machinery show. Information will be provided on regulatory
and safety issues, crop biosecurity for dealers, and
soybean integrated pest management issues and control
strategies, reports Laura Skillman of the University
of Kentucky College of Agriculture Communications
Department. (Read
more)
The meeting is sponsored by the University of Kentucky
Pesticide Safety Program, Kentucky IPM Program and the
AgriBusiness Association of Kentucky.
The cost of the workshop is $35. Registration will be
taken at the door but pre-registration is requested.
To register, contact Tod Griffin at (502) 226-1122 or
tgriffin@kyretail.com.
Friday,
Feb. 3, 2006
'One big shrug' greets W. Va.
governor's request of mines to stop for safety
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin's call
for coal mines to shut down for safety checks, in the
wake of 16 deaths in the state's mines this year, was
met mainly with "one big shrug" along the
state's Coal Heritage Trail between Welch and Bluefield,
reports Duncan Adams of The Roanoke Times.
"Men who said their fathers warned
them off from mining underground barely missed a beat
at a coal-processing plant in Keystone," Adams
writes. "At a barber shop in Welch, retired miners
said they doubted dollar-driven mine operators would
tolerate much downtime. More than a few people said
a weakened United Mine Workers of America union
meant mines pay less attention to
safety these days and miners had less power to refuse
to work in unsafe conditions."
Adams detected a possible backlash from "the increased
scrutiny of the mining industry
by regulators, politicians and the media that has followed
the deaths . . . On a haul road above Keystone, stockpile
trucker Joe Burch said he felt torn" about the
scrutiny. "I'm thinking it's getting the attention
it deserves, but I think it's starting to be too much,"
Burch told Adams. "The mine owners ought to be
responsible enough to do what they need to do, safety-wise."
(Read
more)
Boone
County, W. Va., maintenance workers posted two white
crosses on the courthouse lawn in Madison Thursday,
for two miners who were killed in the county the day
before. A courthouse security guard saw a woman add
two red roses to the display: “God watch over
the families” was handwritten on the white tissue
paper in which they were wrapped. (Photo
and caption from Saturday Gazette-Mail)
New York listeners
hear Kentuckians talk about coal and its coverage
When The New York Times
does a story, other New York media often pay attention.
That happened this week when the Times published a story
about the closing of The Courier-Journal's
rural bureaus, mainly the Louisville newspaper's "fabled"
outpost in the coal town of Hazard, Ky.
Mario Murillo, Friday host of "Wakeup Call"
on WBAI Radio, the Pacifica
station in New York, told listeners that he "stumbled
upon" media reporter Kit Seelye's story
on the front of the Times business section Monday and
thought "the seemingly small, little story"
deserved attention because the closing of the Hazard
bureau meant the loss of a longtime watchdog for the
coal industry.
Murillo's guests by phone this morning were three Kentuckians
-- Bill Caylor, president of the Kentucky Coal
Association; Al Cross, director of the Institute
for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and
former C-J bureau reporter and political writer; and
Tony Oppegard, a former state and federal mine-safety
official. Oppegard said the paper was "a voice
for the powerless, for the common person."
He explained, "There are still plenty of scofflaws
and plenty of outlaws in the Kentucky coal industry.
... Most coal miners die one at a time, and most people
don't notice when they do die." Noting the lack
of reports on recent single fatalities, he said, "That's
really the coverage the Courier-Journal provided before.
They would be there, they would notice, when one miner
died in a non-union mine."
The paper says it will still cover big mine disasters,
but Cross said there is no substitute for having a reporter
in the field. "You really can't cover an industry
like that, an extractive industry, by remote,"
he said. "The key is being there before disasters,
and helping prevent them." He indicated later that
the closing of the bureau was not much of a surprise:
"The Courier-Journal may have been the last paper
in the country to have anything close to a statewide
system of bureaus in a state of any size."
Caylor said the paper's last Hazard reporter, Alan,
Maimon was "fair and balanced." He also noted
the recent move of Roger Alford, Pikeville correspondent
for The Associated Press, who is now
in the state capital of Frankfort. 'We've lost close
to two reporters who basically did the coal beat,"
he said. "We fear no reporter that does a balanced
reporting job on our industry." (AP says it will
fill the Pikeville job.)
Cross said the Institute is trying to help smaller
news outlets pick up the slack left by metropolitan
papers, with such things as "Covering Coal,"
a conference held in Charleston, W. Va., in November,
with industry representatives, mine-safety and environmental
advocates and current and former regulators.
"The industry has always been complex, sometimes
has been controversial, and smaller news outlets often
shy away from that kind of coverage," Cross said.
"Apparently, no seminar like that had ever been
held before, so we think we're at least making a little
progress in helping the smaller news outlets pick up
the slack that is being left by the departure of metropolitan
media from the coalfields."
To download an audio file of "Wakeup Call,"
click here. The
file has the entire 7-8 a.m. segment; the introduction
to the interview began at 7:24:30 and ended at 7:43,
so you can move the control on your media player to
hear just the interview. Click
here to download from the WBAI Web site.
W.Va. enviros ask federal court
to block 'wink and a nod' mining projects
West Virginia environmentalists want a federal court
to block three mountaintop-removal mining permits issued
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"Lawyers for the three groups asked U.S. District
Judge Robert C. Chambers for a preliminary injunction
to stop the mining operations," writes Ken Ward.
Jr. of The Charleston Gazette. Vivian
Stockman, project coordinator for the Ohio Valley
Environmental Coalition, told Ward, "The
corps gives coal companies permits that are little more
than a wink and a nod, and the coal companies waste
little time before ripping out trees, choking off streams
and filling in valleys with mining waste."
"The coalition sought the injunction with the
West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
and Coal River Mountain Watch. The
legal motions were made as part of a suit filed in September
2005 to force the corps to conduct more detailed environmental
studies before it approves valley fill permits for new
mining operations. The case was a follow-up to a ruling
by U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin to block the
corps from reviewing valley fill proposals through a
streamlined 'general permit' process," writes Ward.
Ward notes that Goodwin’s ruling has since been
overturned by a three-judge panel of the 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but environmental
groups have asked the full appeals court to reconsider
that decision. The environmentalists argue the corps
was wrong because those "individual permit"
reviews did not include an Environmental Impact Statement.
(Read
more)
U.S. Senate approves tax breaks
to spur coal-company safety efforts
A coal-mine safety-bill approved by the U.S.
Senate yesterday would give coal companies tax breaks
for spending more on safety equipment and training.
"The measure, authored by Sen. Jay Rockefeller,
D-W.Va., passed by voice vote. It is part of a broader
tax bill that still must win congressional backing.
The provision dealing with underground coal mining would
allow companies to deduct half the costs they incur
when buying safety equipment. Such equipment would include
devices allowing miners to communicate with people above
ground, technology to track miners' whereabouts and
extra oxygen packs," writes Nancy Zuckerbrod of
The Associated Press.
Coal operators could get up to $10,000 for training
people to conduct rescue operations. Companies must
act within three years to benefit from the tax legislation.
National Mining Association spokesman
Luke Popovich told Zuckerbrod the trade group generally
supports giving companies financial incentives to buy
new technology, but they had not yet reviewed Rockefeller's
proposal.
The House-Senate bill would require the federal Mine
Safety and Health Administration to toughen
fines against coal companies that violate safety rules.
Rockefeller said, "In Congress, we have an obligation
to help coal companies meet tougher safety standards,
and these tax credits should be a big help," writes
Zuckerbrod. (Read
more)
Where should you live? Magazine
picks America's top hinterlands spots
In its second annual search for rural bliss, the magazine
Progressive Farmer has come up with what it
considers the best rural counties to live in, based
on price, pollution, education, recreation and more.
"New York state, home to the nation's most populous
city, also has the best rural county to live in, according
to the latest issue. Ontario County, located 45 minutes
from Rochester, is at the top," writes Steve Hargreaves
of CNNMoney.com, whose parent company,
Time Warner, owns the magazine.
Hargreaves notes the magazine also considered cost
of living, crime rates, air quality, access to healthcare
and leisure activities. The magazine used data compiled
by OnBoard LLC. "The result is
a list of 200 counties across the nation where city
dwellers or suburbanites could ditch the rat race for
quiet, clean country living," writes Hargreaves.
For Progressive Farmer's complete story and full list,
click
here.
Oconee, Ga., made the list at No. 3. It is near the
college town and cultural hotbed of Athens. Grafton,
N.H., is on the list for the second year in a row, this
year at No. 4. Hood River County in Oregon, "an
hour's drive from Portland with fruit orchards and vineyards,
green dome hills and jaw-dropping vistas of the craggy
Mt. Hood," describes Hargreaves, is ranked No.
10.
Many of the selections are near major urban areas.
Jamie Cole, Progressive Farmer's creative director,
told CNN/Money, "Most people are going to look
just one or two counties over." And, Cole added,
"They're not moving out buying a McMansion on an
acre. They're buying 20, 30, 40 acres." Those moving
want to learn how to make money from farming or raising
animals. (Read
more)
U.S. beef prices reach record
levels, give farmers cause to celebrate
America's beef farmers, despite a year of storms, drought,
fires, pestilence and disease, have much to celebrate,
as beef prices have reached record levels.
The Rapid City [S.D.] Journal
has a story
about Colleen Popham, of Upton, Wyo., who "went
home happy from the Jan. 19 sale at the Belle
Fourche Livestock Exchange." Popham's family
sold 50 old butcher cows for about 65 cents a pound,
double what they would have fetched three or four years
ago. Popham told the Journal she is seeing the highest
prices of her 50-year ranching career.
Belle Fourche Livestock owner Dean Strong told the
newspaper prices have been at record levels over the
past year, generally selling from $1.25 to $1.50 a pound
on the hoof. Strong told the newspaper, "That amounted
to $30 to $40 more a head than last year, and last year
was pretty good." Three or four years ago, calves
were bringing 70 to 80 cents a pound. For a 600-pound
calf, at even $1.25 a pound today, that's a difference
of $300. If a rancher sells 100 calves in the fall,
that's a $30,000 bigger paycheck.
Thanks to Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institute
for the tip
on this story. For more information about livestock
and cattle prices, check the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's Livestock and Grain Market
News Branch Web
site.
Ag Department audit finds feds
unsure if mad-cow safeguards followed
A 2005 U.S. Department of Agriculture
audit reports its investigators were unable to determine
if beef slaughterhouses and packing plants are following
mad-cow disease safeguards designed to keep the disease
from reaching humans.
"The audit turned up a case of mad-cow disease
last year in a Texas cow. The department's inspector
general didn't find that at-risk tissues - brains, spinal
cords and other nerve parts from older animals - had
entered the food supply," writes Libby Quaid of
The Associated Press.
The report said investigators found it impossible to
say whether slaughterhouses were following the rules.
The rules mandate that at-risk tissues must be removed
when older animals are slaughtered. Infection levels
from mad-cow disease are believed to rise with age,
notes Quaid. Slaughterhouses or processing plants were
cited by the Agriculture Department more than 1,000
times in 2004 and 2005 for violating the rules. A department
official said that's less than 1 percent of all inspections.
Kenneth Petersen, assistant administrator for the department's
Food
Safety and Inspection Service, told Quaid citations
have been dropping. FSIS administrator Barbara Masters
told Quaid, her agency "is confident it is successfully
carrying out its mission to protect public health."
(Read
more)
W.Va. deer farmers decline invitation
to regulations hearing, send lawyer
Members of the West Virginia Deer Farmers Association
turned down an invitation from gov. Joe Manchin and
failed to show at a public hearing on proposed stricter
deer-pen regulations. Instead they sent their lawyer,
who denounced the hearing as inappropriate during his
brief appearance.
The hearing "was supposed to have been a public
debate on deer-pen regulations proposed by the W.Va.
Division of Natural Resources officials. It
ended up being a one-sided show of support for the regulations,"
writes John McCoy of The Charleston Gazette.
DNR Director Frank Jezioro told McCoy after the meeting,
"I’m surprised and shocked that [the Deer
Farmers’ Association] wouldn’t
come out and defend themselves in an open public meeting.
We can only conclude that they don’t want the
public to know their stance on these issues." (Read
more)
The regulations would require farmers to construct
double fences around each deer enclosure; to increase
minimum fence heights to 10 feet, up from the current
8 feet; to triple-tag all captive deer so they could
be identified if they escaped; and for deer farmers
to bear all the costs for disease testing.
Enviros, U.S. Forest Service
at loggerheads over cutting ice-damaged trees
The Daniel Boone National Forest
in Kentucky is coming under fire for plans to cut trees
on nearly 13,000 acres damaged by an ice storm three
years ago.
"The controversial project -- the largest ever
in the Boone -- could be delayed for at least a few
more months by an administrative appeal by the environmental
group Kentucky Heartwood. Environmentalists
also have hinted at staging a tree sit-in when the chain
saws arrive," writes Andy Mead of the Lexington
Herald-Leader.
The Forest Service says the trees need to be removed
because of possible disease or insects. It also plans
to spray herbicides and to clear tree-clogged ponds.
Environmentalists say the ice storm was a natural act
and restoring the forest should be left to nature, notes
Mead. Nick Neises, a Heartwood coordinator, told Mead,
"The public does not support such massive projects
that could kill entire creek beds, take years to implement
and cost millions of dollars."
Daniel Boone Deputy Supervisor George Bain said the
Forest Service had heard from people on both sides of
the argument. The damaged area has been the subject
of a congressional hearing about speeding up such decisions
on federal land, notes Mead. Bain told Mead the Forest
Service was working on a new plan to manage the Daniel
Boone when the ice-storm hit, and it decided to complete
the plan before tackling the storm damage. (Read
more)
Oklahoma residents sue oil and
gas companies over water-well pollution
Sixty-two rural Creek County, Oklahoma, residents have
sued two oil and gas companies, alleging the companies
have polluted ground-water and endangered their health.
Matt Skinner, a spokesman for the Oklahoma
Corporation Commission, told Louise Red Corn
of the Tulsa World, although his company has not yet
determined the source of the pollution, it has tested
a water well of one home-owner, Carol Cunningham, and
found its salt content was "way high -- not a gray
area, but many times the level that it should be."
The commission is searching for the source of the problem.
In the lawsuit, residents are placing blame on Petco
Petroleum Corp., an Illinois company with a
history of violations and lawsuits, and Garvey
Oil & Gas, a California company that Petco
assigned or sold the oil wells to in the past two years,
notes Red Corn.
Tulsa oil and gas lawyer Frank Spiegelberg is representing
the residents. He told Red Corn tests show the salt
level in at least one resident's water well was 18 times
the allowable level for drinking water and that hydrocarbons
tested at more than 5,000 times the standard. He said
the tests also found arsenic, lead, boron and other
elements that cause illness, writes Red Corn. (Read
more)
Kentucky panel OKs helmet law
to combat No. 1 ranking for ATV deaths
"In a debate pitting child safety against property
rights, child safety won out yesterday as a legislative
panel approved a bill that would require youngsters
under the age of 16 to wear helmets when riding all-terrain
vehicles," reports Jack Brammer of the Lexington
[Ky.] Herald-Leader.
State Rep. Ancel Smith, D-Leburn, unsuccessfully offered
an amendment that would have permitted youngsters to
ride without helmets on private property. He said, "I
don't think that I would need to be forced by law to
put that helmet on to ride back on the hill to feed
or check on my cattle or my horses," writes Brammer.
The legislation is House
Bill 334.
Rep. Scott Brinkman, a Louisville Republican co-sponsoring
the bill, said Smith's amendment would kill the bill.
He said, "I can't conceive of any parent who would
legitimately object to making sure that their child
put on a helmet that very well may save that child's
life," writes Brammer. Michele Finn, of the Brain
Injury Association of Kentucky, told legislators
most ATV accidents happen on private property. Under
the bill, parents or guardians would pay the fines for
a violation. A fine would range from $20 to $50. (Read
more)
Kentucky leads the nation in ATV deaths, with 109 ATV-related
deaths between 2000 and 2002. In the past five years,
41 Kentucky children under the age of 18 have died from
ATV accidents. Kentucky reported 328 ATV-related deaths
in the 20 years ending in 2004, more than a third of
them involving children, writes Brammer. For The
Associated Press report, by Bruce Schreiner,
click
here.
Tennessee's oldest town jumps
on branding bandwagon to boost tourism
Politicians use branding as a way to promote their
image or campaign, and now cities and states are using
it to bring in revenue.
Last week, Tennessee's oldest town, Jonesborough, welcomed
Roger Brooks, co-founder of the Washington-based Destination
Development team, and an expert on community
branding. Brooks' company only takes on six community
projects each year. Brooks said, "When I came to
look at Jonesborough, and saw the highway, I wasn’t
very impressed," but seeing the historic downtown
district made the difference, reports Lisa Kereluk-Whaley
of the town's weekly Herald & Tribune.
Jonesborough hosts the National Storytelling Festival,
and it wants to link that fame with a marketing image.
Brooks told town leaders, "This is not about turning
Jonesborough into another Gatlinburg. It’s about
saving your historic downtown and helping your businesses
to survive," reports Kereluk-Whaley. Branding can
boost tourism, which is the fastest growing revenue
producer in the country, Brooks said.
While your particular community can't draw direct lessons
from Jonesborough, there are some general lessons to
be learned from this example. Maybe a "branding
expert" like Brooks can be of use to your community.
(Read
more)
Oregon Cub Scouts look to preserve
building that symbolizes rural heritage
An Oregon Cub Scout pack's use of a local grange unit
prompted a columnist to recall how granges were the
first in the country to advocate a broad range of rural
interests.
"Local history isn't always easy to sense around
here; about the time you're figuring out what a 'game
farm' actually was, for example, a housing development
pops up to further obscure your look back. But you feel
history when you walk into the 93-year-old Willakenzie
Grange," opines Bob Welch of The
[Eugene, Ore.] Register-Guard. Granges
started after the Civil War to be political advocates
for rural towns.
"The memories in this two-story shiplap box are
the stuff of ordinary people eating, discussing, singing,
quilting, voting, canning, lobbying, acting, worshipping
and learning. . . . Now, comes a most unlikely group
to lobby for the nearly century-old building to be given
Historic Landmark Designation by the City of Eugene:
Modern-day Cub Scouts. Kids for whom ancient history
can be an X-Box game that was cool
yesterday but passé today," continues Welch.
(Read
more)
During the last century, the Grange became an architectural
anomaly, a 1913 building stuck in suburbia. Pack 20
Cubmaster David Kemp is hopeful the city will approve
the designation. "Granges are important to our
history because they're not only old - 50 years is our
basic criteria for a historic landmark - but reflect
the growth and social fabric of a community," Kurt
Yeiper, the city's principal planner, told Welch.
Municipal wi-fi catches on in
U.S. cities, while rural areas continue to lag
Municipal wi-fi networks are making headway in the
U.S., with Philadelphia closing a major contract for
a citywide wireless service, and a couple of California
cities announcing plans for free municipal wi-fi, reports
Carmen Nobel of PC Magazine.
"Philadelphia officials have signed a contract
with service provider Earthlink, wherein
Earthlink will own and operate the wi-fi service that
will serve Philadelphia residents, covering 135 square
miles, according to Earthlink officials," writes
Nobel. The service is expected to go live within a year.
Philadelphia officials haven't officially announced
the cost of the upcoming service, but a business plan
on the city's Web site says it should be "lower
than current cable and DSL subscription costs,"
notes Noble. The projected cost to consumers is $16
to $20 per month for residential service with possible
discounts for low-income residents, and $50 to $60 for
premium business services with higher speeds. (Read
more)
Dental program for rural Alaska
children comes under fire
Dental care for rural areas is sparse, especially in
Alaska, and an effort to treat rural children has come
under fire from the nation's largest dental organization.
"Children in rural Alaska suffer dental decay
at 2 1/2 times the national rate -- partially because
few dentists are willing to work in rural Alaska. The
Indian Health Service program has brought in foreign-trained
dental therapists to work in rural areas. But the American
Dental Association opposes the practice, and
this week filed suit in Alaska charging that these therapists
are practicing dentistry illegally," reports Annie
Feidt of the Alaska Public Radio Network.
Feidt's report was featured on National Public
Radio's "All Things Considered" yesterday.
(Click
here)
Six slated for induction into
Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame
Six journalists will be inducted into the Kentucky
Journalism Hall of Fame in April.
The University of Kentucky reports
the inductees are: Don Neagle, owner and operator of
WRUS Radio in Russellville; Larry Spitzer,
retired photographer for The Courier-Journal;
David Thompson, executive director of the Kentucky
Press Association; Ferrell Wellman, former
WAVE television Frankfort bureau chief
and now an Eastern Kentucky University faculty member;
and Bob White, who retired as "Mr. High School
Sports" from The Courier-Journal.
UK's School of Journalism and Telecommunications announced
the posthumous induction of Claude Sullivan, longtime
Wildcat announcer for WVLK radio in
Lexington and the Standard Oil Network,
reports WKYT-TV in Lexington in a combined
university sources and staff report. (Read
more)
The six will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at a
luncheon ceremony sponsored by the University of Kentucky
Journalism and Telecommunications Alumni Association
on April eleventh. It will be held at the Radisson Plaza
Hotel in Lexington.
Journalist, government spokesman,
professor joins Sunshine Week initiative
Hodding Carter III, an award-winning print and broadcast
journalist, former State Department spokesman, past
president of the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation and now professor of leadership
and public policy at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, has joined the Sunshine
Week national open government initiative as honorary
chairman for 2006, reports a Southern Newspaper
Publishers Association e-bulletin.
Sunshine Week 2006 is Mar. 12-18. Media organizations,
civic groups, libraries, schools, non-profit organizations
and others nationwide will participate in coverage of
and discussions about the importance of protecting public
access to government. Sunshine Week is led by the American
Society of Newspaper Editors and is funded
by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,
reports the SNPA.
Editor & Publisher reports Carter
said, "Sunshine Week aims to empower the American
people by demanding that government open its doors and
allow a free flow of news and information -- and I'm
proud to be part of it. With the totalitarian model
of all-powerful Big Brother in retreat around the world,
this is no time to tolerate it here at home." (Read
more)
High school J-programs waning;
often seen as performance enhancing
A national journalism convention, an inspiration for
many aspiring journalists, may be too costly for many
erstwhile reporters, especially from poor rural schools
where the trend has away from having school newspapers,
reports Keira Butler of Columbia Journalism
Review.
A Knight Foundation study - The Future
of the First Amendment - "showed that 26 percent
of the 544 high schools surveyed had no student newspaper.
Of those schools without newspapers, 40 percent had
lost them within the past five years. And 76 percent
of schools without newspapers were urban or rural schools
with high concentrations of poor students and students
of color," writes Butler.
"The largest high school journalism convention
in the United States, co-sponsored by the National
Scholastic Press Association and the Journalism
Education Association, is the Fall National
High School Journalism Convention. The largest of its
kind held each year in a different city, the convention
draws young people who work on newspapers, magazines,
high school radio and television stations, literary
journals, and yearbooks," writes Butler.
Butler notes, however, that "the prohibitive price
of the convention made for a particularly uniform group,
and cites a 1997 study by the American Society
of Newspaper Editors which found that a quarter
of journalists surveyed had already decided on a career
in journalism by the time they were in high school."
Butler concludes "It’s fair to speculate
that journalism’s low minority employment rate
might not improve any time soon." (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 8: Community media ideas
due at Institute for Interactive Journalism
J-Lab’s New Voices program seeks
innovative citizens media projects for funding. Grants
up to $17,000 are available in 2006 for 10 nonprofit
community news ventures. For an application form, guidelines
and other information, go to www.J-Lab.org.
Feb. 8-9: Emerging Mind of Community
Journalism Conference in Anniston
A national conference titled "The Emerging Mind
of Community Journalism" will take place at the
new "Teaching Newspaper" in Anniston, Ala.
The event is being sponsored by the John S.
and James L. Knight Foundation, The
University of Alabama and The Anniston
Star.
Speakers will identify new ways for journalists to
strengthen their civic connections. Conference speakers
will include: Alberto Ibarguen, Knight Foundation CEO
and former Miami Herald publisher;
Richard C. Harwood, conscience of community and author
of Hope Unraveled; Peggy Kuhr, journalist-professor
and Knight Chair on the Press, Leadership, and Community;
Michael Bugeja, journalist-scholar on the digital age
community and author of Interpersonal Divide; and Cole
Campbell, former editor, Kettering Foundation
associate and journalism dean.
Registration for the two-day event is $200, or $100
for those attending the second day only. More information
and online registration is available here
or by calling the Teaching Newspaper's Amelia Rowe at
(256) 235-3580.
Thursday,
Feb. 2, 2006
A
meth tax? Oregon county officials propose a levy to
expand drug war
Local law enforcement and health officials
in Yamhill County, Oregon, are proposing a "draft"
of local support for the war on methamphetamine in a
radical new way -- a property tax that would raise $14
million over three years.
The levy, which officials hope to have on the ballot
in May, cost taxpayers 84 cents per $1,000 of assessed
valuation, reports the thrice-weekly News-Register
in McMinnville. The package would increase local enforcement
and public health services with a 7 percent workforce
expansion. The funds would funnel into five county departments
that each deal in some way with the drug's effects.
Yamhill County would get more sheriff's deputies, medical
staff and supplies for its juvenile detention center
and seven sworn deputies in public schools, costing
approximately $2 million.
But $14 million may not be enough to really fight the
growing menace. Meth users may have been behind 75 percent
of local property crime, and reporter David Bates writes
that, according to local officials, "the overwhelming
majority of local felony cases are linked in some way
to meth use. They say one-third of juvenile offenders
have already gotten mixed up with meth, and the drug
is a common denominator in local child neglect and abuse
cases."
Sheriff Jack Crabtree told Bates, "I'm consistently
asked what are we going to do about this problem. The
fact is, right now, I don't have anything to draw from.
I absolutely do not have the resources to do anything
more." (Read
more)
Dealing with meth problem becomes
'routine' for Arizona city's doctors
Methamphetamine use around Yuma, Ariz., has grown
to the point that "We're more surprised to see
a negative drug screen than we are a positive one,"
an emergency-room doctor told of the Yuma
Sun.
Dr. Phillip Richemont, who has been an ER doctor here
for more than 12 years, told reporter Jonathan Athens
that accident and crime-related injuries coming to the
ER that are directly attributed to meth use have been
rising for the past three years.
According to the Yuma Regional Medical Center,
the number of ER patients testing positive for meth
use has more than quadrupled from 112 cases in 2000
to 467 in 2005, making it the top illicit drug among
those patients tested at the hospital. In 2005, 45 tested
positive for cocaine, 117 tested positive for marijuana
and 122 tested positive for opiates. The ER sees 57,000
cases a year. (Read
more)
More coal-mine deaths spur action
for safety checks, new federal laws
"On the day West Virginia moved to
close mines following two more deaths, that state's
congressional delegation yesterday proposed mine legislation
to raise fines, track miners underground and stash oxygen
for those who may become trapped," writes James
R. Carroll of The Courier-Journal.
(Read
more)
Manchin called for closing the state's
more than 500 mines for safety checks, and the U.S.
Mine Safety and Health Administration asked operators
to take an hour for safety training at the beginning
of each shift Monday. In Congress, "Many of the
measures would mirror those passed by West Virginia's
legislature and proposed in Kentucky" and other
states, Carroll writes for the Louisville newspaper.
The latest deaths bring to 16 the number
of coal mining fatalities in West Virginia this month
alone, and Manchin's call for a moratorium on mining
caught immediate and widespread news attention. The
Gazette's veteran coal reporter, Ken Ward Jr., provides
extensive details. (Read
more)
"We’re not going to produce
another lump of coal until this is done," Manchin
said during a press conference. Administration officials
and coal industry representatives, though, were quick
to say that production would not actually stop today
at most of the state’s mines," Ward reports.
The United Mine Workers said Manchin
"called for a ‘review of safety procedures
at the beginning of each shift, after which work is
to continue."
Significantly, the industry supported
Manchin. West Virginia Coal Association
President Bill Raney told Ward, "Clearly, it’s
the thing to do." Chris Hamilton, the association's
senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association,
told the Huntington Herald-Dispatch that
he didn't know how much the stoppage would cost the
industr, but "If it saves one life, it will pass
the cost-benefit analysis."
Evening television newscasts began reporting on the
deaths and Manchin's action shortly after 6 p.m. ABC
News was first at 6:37 p.m. with a "voice
over file-tape" report showing Manchin at a previous
mine disaster, followed by a copy-only report on CBS
News at 6:39 p.m. with NBC
reporting last, copy only, at 6:41 p.m. National
Public Radio aired a report from Ann Sale of
the West Virginia Public Radio Network
for their 6:30 a.m. news today. (Click
here to listen)
The
late-breaking story led most West Virginia newspapers,
but most relied on The Associated Press.
A staff story by Bryan Chambers and Curtis Johnson led
the Herald-Dispatch. In big coal towns, the Williamson
Daily News and The Register-Herald
of Beckley led with AP. The Dominion Post
of Morgantown and the Times West Virginian
of Fairmont had "staff and wire" stories.
The
New York Times and The
Washington Post both did staff stories,
reflecting coal's currently high national profile.
Illinois joins growing list
of states proposing mine safety legislation
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is backing proposed state
legislation that would require the coal industry to
equip miners with extra air tanks and take a greater
role in staffing mine rescue teams.
"We are trying really hard to revitalize the coal
industry in southern Illinois and central Illinois.
At the same time, we have to be mindful of the fact
that miners need to be safe when they work in the coal
mines," Blagojevich said Monday. The proposal would
require that caches of oxygen to be placed throughout
coal mines and that all workers wear a Global Positioning
Satellite device and a Self Contained Self Rescuer,
or SCSR. Currently, all miners must have access to devices
that hold one hour of oxygen.
"The GPS tracker might be the best idea of all.
Oxygen is vital, but rescuers must be able to find you
before the oxygen tank runs out," writes Eric Fodor
of The Daily Register in Harrisburg,
who inteviewed miners recemtly laid off from a local
mine. "I can't tell you how many times I have worked
eight to 12 hours alone and wondered what would happen,"
Eric Mannion of Mount Vernon told Fodor. (Read
more)
Illinois Coal Association president
Phil Gonet said his group is reviewing the legislation
and told Adrian, "It seems to be customized to
Illinois. From what I’ve been able to view of
the proposal…these look like decent safety enhancements,"
he told Matt Adrian of the Quad-City Times.
(Read
more)
'St. Jack,' ex-senator and Episcopal
priest, asks moderates to fight the right
In a story headined St. Jack and the Bullies in
the Pulpit: John Danforth Says It's Time the GOP Center
Took On The Christian Right, Washington
Post reporter Peter Slevin writes, "Jack
Danforth wishes the Republican right would step down
from its pulpit. Instead, he sees a constant flow of
religion into national politics. And not just any religion,
either, but the us-versus-them, my-God-is-bigger-than-your-God,
velvet-fist variety of Christian evangelism."
The mainline Episcopal priest, retired U.S. senator
and diplomat, told Slevin legislating against gay marriage
is "just cussedness." Danforth believes "many
Republican leaders have lost their bearings and, if
they don't change, will lose their grip on power. Not
to mention make the United States a meaner place,"
writes Slevin. Danforth is a lifelong Republican. Once
dubbed "St. Jack," Danforth expects people
will sour on the assertive brand of Christianity "so
closely branded Republican," writes Slevin.
Danforth told Slevin, "The Republican Party has
been taken over by something that it's not." He
asks, "How do traditional Republicans put up with
this? They put up with this because it's a winning combination,
for now. . . . The more people think about it, the more
people will resist it. People do not want a sectarian
political party, including a lot of people who are traditional
Republicans."
White House Chief Adviser Karl Rove "has little
use for Danforth, however grand his religious and political
pedigrees," writes Slevin. Rove has described the
former senator as "what was wrong with the Republican
Party and why they were a minority party." (Read
more)
Stewardship of God's creation:
Evangelicals stay divided on global warming
The National Association of Evangelicals
will not take a stand on global warming after failing
to reach a consensus on the issue, disappointing environmentalists
who had hoped for pressure on the Bush administration
to soften its position, The Washington Post
reports.
"Over the past four years a growing number of
evangelical groups have embraced environmental causes,
urging Christians to engage in 'Creation care' and campaigning
against gas-guzzling SUVs with advertisements asking,
'What would Jesus drive?'" writes the Post's Alan
Cooperman.
In October 2004, the leadership of the NAE declared
mankind has "a sacred responsibility to steward
the Earth and not a license to abuse the creation of
which we are a part." The umbrella group's president,
the Rev. Ted Haggard of Colorado Springs, called the
environment "a values issue."
Dubbed the "greening of evangelicals" in
a Post article a year ago, the movement has also met
internal resistance, notes Cooperman. In a letter to
Haggard last month, more than 20 evangelical leaders
urged the NAE not to adopt "any official position"
on global climate change because "Bible-believing
evangelicals . . . disagree about the cause, severity
and solutions to the global warming issue."
Calvin DeWitt, environmental-studies professor at the
University of Wisconsin, and a leading
evangelical supporter of environmental causes, called
the statement "a retreat and a defeat." (Read
more)
Pa. governor proposes using
tobacco-settlement money to fund bioscience
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has announced an economic
development initiative that would leverage tobacco-settlement
money for a $500 million investment in the state's bioscience
industry. Called the Jonas Salk Legacy Fund, Rendell's
program would direct money to medical research facilities
looking for cancer cures, writes Christopher Snowbeck
of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Currently, 19 percent of the state's tobacco settlement
revenue -- or about $70 million per year -- funds research
projects through a program administered by the state
Department of Health, notes Snowbeck.
Rendell has proposed taking half of that money to make
yearly payments on a $500 million bond issue. The bond
revenue would be used to develop research facilities,
build lab space and hire faculty.
Institutions that conduct bioscience research in the
state would be eligible to participate. Thirteen other
states and Washington, D.C., already are using some
of their tobacco settlement money to fund special projects.
(Read
more)
In North Carolina, which allocated half of its settlement
money to agriculture, the largest sinngle segment of
that spending is for biotechnology projects that could
add value to the state's argricultural output. For a
comparison of settlement spending in North Carolina
and Kentucky, the No. 2 tobacco state, click
here.
North Carolina's Triad region
launches area-wide wireless broadband
A provider of high-speed, wireless Internet access
has launched its service in the Triad region of Greensboro,
High Point and Winston-Salem, marking the company's
first foray into North Carolina, reports The
Business Journal, which serves the three cities.
The Internet access also extends to the communities
of Burlington, Archdale, Trinity, Thomasville, Lexington,
Asheboro, Gibsonville, Glen Raven, Elon, Graham, Mebane,
Reidsville and Kernersville.
Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday said the development
will yield competition, which should keep prices down.
General Manager Barbara Proctor told the Journal the
service is targeted at residential customers and small
businesses. The Triad is the 26th U.S. market the company
has entered since it was founded in 2004, notes the
Journal. (Read
more)
Vote-fraud probe turns up mound
of documents in Appalachia, Va.
Virginia State Police and special
prosecutors report they netted a mountain of paperwork
to plow through from searches of homes and offices in
an ongoing election fraud probe in the city of Appalachia.
"Documents of all sorts were part of a mountain
of evidentiary materials seized Monday at Appalachia
Town Hall, the Appalachia Police Department, and homes
of Mayor / Town Manager Ben Cooper, acting Police Chief
Ben Serber, and Town Councilman Owen Anderson "Andy"
Sharrett III," writes Stephen Igo of the Kingsport
[Tenn.] Times-News.
The three town officials were to have provided DNA
evidence as well, notes Igo. DNA testing is being conducted
on envelopes used to mail absentee ballots during the
2004 town elections. Election fraud allegations include
tampering with absentee ballots and attempting to buy
votes with beer, cigarettes and packages of pork rinds.
Rex Bowman of the Richmond Times-Dispatch
writes more about the pork rinds in a story headlined
Town suffers effects of pork-rind proposition: Appalachia
fears that vote-buying claims have hurt its image.
(Read
more)
Special Prosecutor Tim McAfee told Igo, "We're
looking for things that show associations. We're looking
for things, and we've found some things, that relate
to the (alleged) election fraud. We've got handwriting
samples now and we can compare them to some of the (allegedly)
forged documents, in this case the absentee ballots
and ballot applications, too." (Read
more)
Time to look up to mountain
folk, says reviewer of new Appalachia book
Appalachia and its people, too often the sources of
bad news for the region and the rest of the country,
rarely get praise. When they do, it's worth noting.
Mary Delach Leonard of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
reviewing the new book The United States of Appalachia:
How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture
and Enlightenment to America, writes, "It's
time to look up to mountain folk," and she mildly
chastises those who don't.
"Quick! Name a historical figure from Appalachia
not named Hatfield or McCoy. Or an Appalachian song
with no dueling banjos," Leonard writes, adding
later: "Biggers lauds the literary minds that hailed
from the region, such as Pearl S. Buck and Thomas Wolfe
-- and that newspaper publisher from Chattanooga, Adolph
Ochs, who took over The New York Times."
Biggers, 42, who lives in the west-central Illinois
town of Macomb but saw strip mining destroy the home
of his mother's family in Southern Illinois, "details
how the abolitionist movement took hold in Appalachia
decades before Abraham Lincoln was elected president
and how, a century later, civil rights pioneers nurtured
their movement at the Highlander Folk School
in Tennessee," Leonard writes.
Biggers won an American Book Award last year for a
book on the poetry of Don West. He told Leonard that
West once told him, "You cannot understand America
until you understand Appalachia." (Read
more)
Rural
Calendar
Feb. 8: Community media ideas
due at Institute for Interactive Journalism
J-Lab’s New Voices program seeks
innovative citizens media projects for funding. Grants
up to $17,000 are available in 2006 for 10 nonprofit
community news ventures. For an application form, guidelines
and other information, go to www.J-Lab.org.
Feb. 8-9: Emerging Mind of Community
Journalism Conference in Anniston
A national conference titled "The Emerging Mind
of Community Journalism" will take place at the
new "Teaching Newspaper" in Anniston, Ala.
The event is being sponsored by the John S.
and James L. Knight Foundation, The
University of Alabama and The Anniston
Star.
Speakers will identify new ways for journalists to
strengthen their civic connections. Conference speakers
will include: Alberto Ibarguen, Knight Foundation CEO
and former Miami Herald publisher;
Richard C. Harwood, conscience of community and author
of Hope Unraveled; Peggy Kuhr, journalist-professor
and Knight Chair on the Press, Leadership, and Community;
Michael Bugeja, journalist-scholar on the digital age
community and author of Interpersonal Divide; and Cole
Campbell, former editor, Kettering Foundation
associate and journalism dean.
Registration for the two-day event is $200, or $100
for those attending the second day only. More information
and online registration is available here
or by calling the Teaching Newspaper's Amelia Rowet
at (256) 235-3580.
Wednesday,
Feb. 1, 2006
Bush calls for a new kind of
ethanol, from sources other than corn
In
his State of the Union address last night, President
Bush outlined a package of energy proposals designed
to provide the public fuel-saving technologies, including
the use of ethanol from sources other than corn.
Bush said
Congress should "fund additional research in cutting-edge
methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn, but
from wood chips and stalks, or switch grass. Our goal
is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive
within six years."
Bush's last energy bill, which included plans for greater
use of ethanol, hydrogen and renewable fuels, became
law in August, right after Americans were hit with the
biggest increase in energy costs in 15 years, reports
The Associated Press.
Ethanol production from corn has boosted income of
farmers by $5.5 billion and provides more than 150,000
jobs in rural areas, according to the Iowa
Corn Growers Association. If that growth
in ethanol production continues, ICGA anticipates an
additional $6.6 billion of net income for America's
farmers over the next 15 years.
"Almost all ethanol produced now comes from corn,"
notes AP. "Bush noted to CBS that about 4.6 million
cars on the road in the United States can run on ethanol.
The fuel works in more than 30 models, including General
Motor's Yukon, Chevrolet's Silverado and Ford's Taurus.
However, almost all drivers of those vehicles outside
the Corn Belt fill up with gasoline."
Running rough: Washington truckers
question biodiesel quality if mandated
As the state of Washington prepares to mandate the
use of biodiesel on its roads and highways, trucking
and engine companies are worried low-quality fuel might
force some trucks to sit it out in the shop.
"Minnesota has already learned the hard way. When
rigs there started breaking down last fall, the state
suspended its rule that all diesel include at least
2 percent biodiesel. Bad batches were causing crystallization
inside of engines, clogging fuel filters and shutting
down whole fleets," writes Jason McBride of the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Legislation
being considered in Washington would mandate a 2 percent
biodiesel mix for all diesel sold in the state starting
in July 2007.
John Hausladen, president of the Minnesota
Trucking Association, told McBride, "A
mandate is the absolute worst way to go. We are customers.
We are not captives." Proponents of biodiesel say
the alternative fuel has had a better track record in
Washington than elsewhere.
Olympia Intercity Transit
runs its state-capital buses on a mix of 20 percent
biodiesel and has had great success with its program,
according to maintenance director Randy Winders, who
told McBride, " There (are) no significant problems.
Nothing that's come close to downing fleets."
(Read
more)
Illinois rural advocate says
small towns need better roads, online access
The retiring founder of an Illinois rural-advocacy
group says the state needs to upgrade both rural roads
and its online information highway to keep rural people
and businesses from being bypassed.
"Norm Walzer said small towns have generally rebounded
since the Illinois
Institute for Rural Affairs was launched
in 1989, but could again face job and population declines
without basic infrastructure he says now includes high-speed
Internet as well as pavement," writes Jan Dennis
of The Associated Press.
Walzer, 62, will continue as a consultant after retiring
today from the Western Illinois University-based
institute. He told Dennis, "If you're used to high-speed
Internet access and you do a lot of shopping and everything
else on line, then the rural areas are no longer as
attractive." Internet providers say high-speed
service is sometimes cost prohibitive in rural pockets
because of the costs-per-customer, notes Dennis.
Some providers are exploring other options to speed
Internet connections in rural Illinois, which comprises
about 75 percent of the state. Verizon Communications
spokesman Bill Kula told Dennis his company will soon
evaluate a pilot program launched last summer that provides
high-speed Internet through a fixed wireless service
to three Illinois towns.
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, chairman of the Governor's
Rural Affairs Council, told Dennis. "You
cannot have an Internet system where some people are
left out and left behind. It has to be a universal system."
Illinois Department of Transportation
spokesman Matt Vanover told Dennis, "Multilane
highways in rural areas can be a big economic boom and
a lifeline for these small communities." (Read
more)
U. S. senators grill mine-safety
nominee about ensuring workers' welfare
President Bush's nominee to head the Mine Safety
and Health Administration faced tough questioning
yesterday at a Senate confirmation hearing.
"Senator Edward M. Kennedy ... suggested that
the nominee, Richard M. Stickler, might be too cozy
with the mine industry to move MSHA, which he would
head, toward stiffer enforcement," writes Ian Urbina
of The New York Times.
Kennedy said, "Mr. Stickler's history is long
on coal production experience but short on ensuring
worker safety," referring to the nominee's three
decades of management experience in the industry. Kennedy
said an aggressive leader was needed to prevent tragedies
like the two accidents that killed 14 miners in West
Virginia in January, and "I'm concerned that Mr.
Stickler may not be that person."
Stickler worked for BethEnergy Mines
of Amity, Pa., for 30 years before heading the Pennsylvania
Bureau of Deep Mine Safety from 1997 to 2003.
He told the committee, "I believe I have the background
and experience to do this job. I have been an underground
miner. I know what it feels like to lose men in tragic
mine accidents."
Committee chairman, Sen. Michael B. Enzi, R-Wyo., said,
"There are no adversaries in the effort to promote
workplace safety." If confirmed by the full Senate,
Stickler will succeed David G. Dye, acting administrator
of the agency, which has been without a permanent boss
for a year. (Read
more)
Sago Mine owner tries again
to block UMW from disaster investigation
The owner of the Sago, W.Va., coal mine where a Jan.
2 explosion killed 12 miners and seriously injured another,
has gone to court again in an effort to block the United
Mine Workers of America from participating
in the investigation of that explosion.
International Coal Group Inc. filed
with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond,
Va., "asking the court to block the UMW from the
mine while its appeal is heard arguing union officials
do not represent the majority of its employees and have
no place in the investigation," writes Cindi Lash
of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. ICG
claims UMW participation is part of an organizing attempt.
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration
and the UMW again argued thatg federal law permits UMW
officials to join an investigation if two miners designate
them as their representatives, notes Lash. UMW attorney
Judy Rivlin told Lash, "The employees have ...
been given the right by Congress to designate us. The
company has no right to interfere."
The company has asked for one judge rather than a three-judge
panel, customary in appealate hearings, to review and
rule on the case. Its action did not keeo the investigative
team of federal and state officials, UMW representatives
and Sago employees from working underground at the mine.
(Read
more)
Pennsylvania lawmaker: 'Blood
will be on our hands' without mine law update
Pennsylvania lawmakers say more than three years after
a major accident at the Quecreek Mine, the state can
no longer wait for the first major update in 45 years
to the state's underground-mining law.
"Action must happen quickly because 'we will have
another accident, we will have another tragedy, and
if we do nothing, the blood will be on our hands,' state
Sen. Richard Kasunic, D-Fayette, said at the start of
a two-hour hearing whose scheduling was hastened by
the deaths of 12 miners in West Virginia several weeks
ago," writes Marc Levy of The Associated
Press. In the 2002 Quecreek accident near Somerset,
Pa., miners were relying on outdated maps when they
breached an abandoned adjacent mine, flooding their
mine with millions of gallons of cold water. They were
rescued after 77 hours underground.
The new legislation would create a three-member Mine
Safety Board to update health and safety regulations
and keep pace with technology, but underground oxygen
stations, wireless communication systems and tracking
of miners have not received unanimous support, notes
Levy.
A miners' union representative testified in favor of
immediately requiring such systems, noting that West
Virginia policymakers promptly approved a law requiring
mine operators to keep extra breathing packs underground
and track and wirelessly communicate with miners.
A Pennsylvania Coal Association representative
testified that West Virginia's new requirements are
deeply flawed either because existing technology is
inadequate, or the requirements tie the hands of companies
to find a better alternative, writes Levy. Pennsylvania,
once the top coal state in the nation, now is the fourth-largest
producer of coal and has almost 7,000 coal miners, notes
Levy. (Read
more)
Blasting mountaintop-removal
mining: Ky. educator's book debuts tomorrow
An author and lecturer in the University of
Kentucky's English department, who this week
won a prestigious award for his writing on mountaintop-removal
coal mining, is taking his fight against the practice
to the nation, flying to New York for the debut tomorrow
of his book on the subject.
Erik Reece told Dariush Shafa of The
Kentucky Kernel, the university's student
newspaper, that he hopes his book helps raise people's
awareness of the mining method critics say devastates
the ecology for miles around any mining site.
Reece first published an article in Harper's
Magazine in April, "Death of a Mountain,"
which chronicled the story of Lost Mountain near Hazard,
Ky., and the effects of mountaintop removal mining,
which puts the rubble into surrounding valleys, writes
Shafa. Reece won Columbia University's
John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental
Journalism this week for the 19,000-word essay.
Reece told Shafa, "I'm setting out to make this
a mainstream issue and to get urban readers to pay attention."
The book, Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing
Wilderness, is being published by Riverhead
Hardcover and will be released tomorrow.
Major bio-medical company awarded
U. S. patent on mad-cow disease test
Genesis
Bioventures has announced its rapid test
for mad-cow disease has been awarded a U.S. patent,
reports United Press International.
"The test, known as the Rapid Prion-Detection
Assay, was developed by Genesis' portfolio company Prion
Developmental Laboratories [PDL] .
The patent covers the use of this method of testing
for all transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in
animals and humans," writes UPI.
Robert Petersen, chief executive officer of PDL, said,
"This is a pivotal patent for the industry and
for consumers as it clears the path for producers and
meat packers in the United States to economically test
all beef produced for consumption and to ensure that
exported beef is free from the infectious agent that
causes mad cow disease.".
Petersen added, "We believe this is a critically
important development that can have substantial economic
benefit to the $98 billion U. S. beef industry by enabling
[testing of] every animal before the animal is processed
and shipped to food stores or exported to foreign nations."
(Read
more)
Official tells Kentucky columnist
state's deer, elk not infected with CWD
"If you have venison steaks in your freezer and
have heard the latest news about chronic wasting disease
among deer and elk, you might be wondering whether to
plop the steaks on the grill or pitch them in the garbage,"
writes Courier-Journal columnist Byron
Crawford in today's edition.
"The findings of University of Kentucky
prion researcher Glenn Telling, published Friday in
Science, [and reported
Friday by The Rural Blog] indicate that disease-spreading
prions -- abnormal, infectious protein agents formerly
believed to be confined only to the infected animal's
brain, spinal cord and other nerve tissues -- are now
known to be present in the meat of choice cuts as well,"
writes Crawford.
Chronic wasting disease, an equivalent of mad-cow
disease that is highly contagious to deer and elk, has
been diagnosed in animals in 14 states, including Illinois
and West Virginia, which border Kentucky, but Kentucky
Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Mark
Marraccini said that "due in part to early awareness
and intense testing of an estimated 10,000 deer or elk
harvested in all 120 counties over the past five years,
Kentucky remains free of the disease," writes Crawford.
Marraccini also said deer and elk cannot be imported
into Kentucky. But he also told Crawford, "We have
considered it to be the No. 1 conservation or wildlife
threat to Kentucky for a while now. There is no live
test for the disease -- and we know that it can have
an incubation period up to five years where the deer
or elk show no symptoms." (Read
more)
Kentucky religious-postings
bill amended to allow 'In God We Trust' display
Kentucky, which had a case involving religious displays
on public property before the U.S. Supreme Court last
year, is again embroiled in a legislative effort to
allow more public testament.
"House Democrats [have been] crafting a bill they
believed would allow postings of religious documents
such as the Ten Commandments as part of historic exhibits.
Constitutional lawyers told them the bill ... is permitted
under federal court decisions such as a recent ruling
allowing a display at the Mercer County courthouse.
But ... Rep. Tom Riner, D-Louisville introduced a surprise
amendment calling for the posting of 'In God We Trust'
above the dais of the speaker of the Kentucky House
of Representatives," writes Peter Smith of The
Courier-Journal.
After protests that the amendment would endanger the
original bill making it unconstitutional, the measure
passed in committee unanimously and now heads to the
full House. Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Cherry concluded
the debate with, "God help us all." Cherry,
D-Princeton, and others prefer the "In God We Trust"
posting come in a separate bill, The C-J reports.
The original legislation -- House Bill 277 -- was filed
by Reps. Rick Nelson, D-Middlesboro, and Bob Damron,
D-Nicholasville, who is chairman of the majority caucus.
Riner called the bill a "campaign gimmick …
so we can all go home and say we did something good
to get the Ten Commandments up or whatever it is,"
Smith writes for the Louisville newspaper. (Read
more)
Kentucky governor says redoing
tobacco deal could hold down college tuition
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher says public colleges and
universities could keep down tuition increases next
year if Kentucky rethinks a 1998 agreement with tobacco
companies.
"But House Democrats said they have too many legal
concerns to adopt the proposal. John McGary, a spokesman
for House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, said
Fletcher is using tuition 'as leverage' to pressure
the House into replacing payments from the agreement
with another source of money," writes Mark Pitsch
of The Courier-Journal.
McGary told Pitsch the governor "wants to say if
we don't do what he wants we'll be costing people projects
and raising tuition."
Fletcher called a news conference to reiterate imposing
a $4-per-carton tax on cigarettes rather than accept
payments from the agreement. He said the state could
receive $150 million a year under the per-carton tax
-- more than Kentucky gets each year under the settlement
agreement.
Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, chairman of the House
budget committee, said he agrees the state could receive
more money through a tax on cigarette manufacturers,
but said replacing agreement payments with a manufacturer's
tax could result in lawsuits and leave the state without
revenue from either source, writes Pitsch. (Read
more)
Appalachia, Va., vote-fraud
probe heats-up with search of town hall, homes
Law-enforcement authorities have executed search warrants
at the home of the Appalachia, Va. mayor/town manager,
a town councilman and members of his family, and the
acting police chief as part of an ongoing investigation
into allegations of election fraud during town elections
two years ago.
"Wise County Special Prosecutor Tim McAfee accompanied
'multiple search teams' of the Virginia State
Police to execute search warrants on the residence
of Mayor/Town Manager Ben Cooper, the offices of the
Appalachia Police Department and Appalachia
Town Hall, the residence of acting Police Chief Ben
Serber, and the residence of Town Councilman Owen Anderson
"Andy" Sharrett III," writes Stephen
Igo of the Kingsport [Tenn.] Times-News.
McAfee told Igo the search warrants also named Sharrett's
father, Owen Anderson "Dude" Sharrett Jr.,
mother Belinda Sharrett, and brother Adam Brody Sharrett,
all who share the same residence. Another warrant was
executed on the residence of Betty Bolling, aunt of
Dude Sharrett.
Allegations of election fraud cropped up after the
2004 town elections. The allegations include attempts
to buy votes with offers of cigarettes, beer and bags
of pork rinds, and tampering with absentee ballots.
Most recently, an envelope used to submit an absentee
ballot was sent to crime labs for DNA testing.
McAfee told Igo that about 16 Virginia State
Police detectives, as well as some uniformed
troopers, searched the homes. He said evidence being
collected included handwriting samples, associations
between individuals, and DNA samples from six individuals.
(Read
more) For the Richmond [Va.]
Times-Dispatch report on the case, by Rex Bowman,
click
here.
McLuhan updated: Study says
newspapers more engaging than TV, radio, Web
A recent study by Ball State University's
Middletown Media Studies project concludes, that although
newspapers are read only a few times a day and for brief
periods each time, they are more engaging than other
media.
"Sixty-eight percent of the time test subjects
spent with newspapers was without competition from other
activities, compared to 53.8 percent for television
and 41.4 percent for Web. Eating was the most common
activity paired with reading the newspaper," writes
Miki Johnson of Editor & Publisher.
Subjects spent 70 percent of their time splitting attention
between papers and another medium, a practice the study
terms "concurrent media exposure." To further
investigate this pattern, the attention subjects paid
to various media was noted as well, writes Johnson.
Click
here to download a PDF of the report.
The studies, funded by the Lilly Endowment
and administered through the Center
for Media Design at Ball State, deployed 150
observers with hand-held computers to observe 350 subjects'
media use from morning until night. The subjects came
from Muncie and Indianapolis and were chosen to roughly
represent national demographics, writes Johnson.(Read
more)
Media expert Marshall McLuhan, in Understanding
Media: The Extensions of Man in 1964, called TV
and film "cold media," as opposed to "hot
media" of books and papers. A hot medium makes
a person think ... while a cold medium spells everything
out for you, says Mark Federman, chief strategist for
the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the
University of Toronto. (Read
more)
CNHI's Reed to head Liberty
Group Publishing, another big community chain
Days after he resigned as president and CEO of Community
Newspaper Holdings Inc., Mike Reed has been
named CEO for another big chain of small dailies, Northbrook,
Ill.-based Liberty Group Publishing Inc., writes
Editor & Publisher in a staff report.
Liberty was bought by Fortress Investment Group
LLC last June, and had been managed by co-presidents
Scott Champion and Randall Cope. They replaced CEO Kenneth
Serota, a former Hollinger International attorney who
formed the group by buying up dozens of the small dailies
being sold off by the chain, then run by Conrad Black.
Serota resigned after the sale to Fortress, writes E&P.
(Read
more)
Rural
Calendar: Media ideas, community journalism functions
in coming week
Feb. 8: Community media ideas
due at Institute for Interactive Journalism
J-Lab’s New Voices program seeks
innovative citizens media projects for funding. Grants
up to $17,000 are available in 2006 for 10 nonprofit
community news ventures. For an application form, guidelines
and other information, go to www.J-Lab.org.
Feb. 8-9: Emerging Mind of Community
Journalism Conference in Anniston
A national conference titled "The Emerging Mind
of Community Journalism" will take place at the
new "Teaching Newspaper" in Anniston, Ala.
The event is being sponsored by the John S.
and James L. Knight Foundation, The
University of Alabama and The Anniston
Star.
Speakers will identify new ways for journalists to
strengthen their civic connections. Conference speakers
will include: Alberto Ibarguen, Knight Foundation CEO
and former Miami Herald publisher;
Richard C. Harwood, conscience of community and author
of Hope Unraveled; Peggy Kuhr, journalist-professor
and Knight Chair on the Press, Leadership, and Community;
Michael Bugeja, journalist-scholar on the digital age
community and author of Interpersonal Divide; and Cole
Campbell, former editor, Kettering Foundation
associate and journalism dean.
Registration for the two-day event is $200, or $100
for those attending the second day only. More information
and online registration is available here
or by calling the Teaching Newspaper's Amelia Rowet
at (256) 235-3580. |