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Rural Blog Archive May 2005 Issues, trends, events, ideas and journalism from the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues Tuesday, May 31, 2005 Researchers find better way to reclaim strip mines, but firms, landowners wary University of Kentucky forestry researchers are using a new method they say is faster and more effective to recover and reforest strip-mined land, but mining industry officials are reluctant to adopt the technique. Lexington Herald-Leader environmental reporter Andy Mead uses as an example a mountain in Pike County, Kentucky, where UK researchers are trying a new, apparently faster method of reforestation and rejuvenation, described by as taking place on "barren rock and sand that looks like the surface of Mars." Mead writes, "Atop Bent Mountain ... a mountain being leveled and stripped bare for its coal — hundreds of tree seedlings have been planted ... and seem doomed to die in the inhospitable terrain. (But) ...the researchers have figured out how to regrow forests on land that has been ripped open to get coal out." (Read more) The researchers have found by sticking seedlings in loose material after mining, trees are growing faster, reducing air and water pollution, reclaiming mined land more cheaply, and reducing the environmental effects of mining. But the researchers are having a hard time winning over coal companies that fear loss of reclamation bonds and landowners who want a quick payoff from pastures rather than a long-term investment in forestry. Mead also invites readers to "Go to Kentucky.com from 12 to 1 p.m. Thursday for an online chat about mountaintop removal with Bill Caylor, president of the Kentucky Coal Association." For more on the UK forestry department, click here. Latino Republican county official in Idaho targets illegal migrant workers Robert Vasquez, a Mexican-American and Republican county commissioner in Canyon County, Idaho, has mounted a crusade against illegal immigration, what he calls "an imminent invasion" from south of the border, and his efforts are causing political tremors felt as far away as Washington, D.C. (Read more) "Mr. Vasquez has tried to have Canyon County declared a disaster area because of the strain from illegal immigrants. He has also sent a bill to the Mexican government for more than $2 million; that is the cost, he said, of Mexicans who are in the county illegally," Timothy Egan writes for The New York Times. This month, Vasquez got his fellow commissioners to use federal racketeering statutes against people who employ illegal immigrants. "County officials have maintained that illegal immigrants drain public funds ... (and) have characterized the move as a effort to preserve jobs for legal citizens and save county funds," Mike Butts of the Idaho Press-Tribune, in Nampa, reported May 21. (Read more) Butts wrote that the county has "a particular business or businesses in mind that they want to make an example of," but Egan reports that the move "has angered the solidly Republican business community and many of the senior political leaders in this heavily Republican state." Howard Foster, a Chicago lawyer advising the county, says it is the only local government in the nation to use the racketeering law against immigrants and employers. Louisiana ministers making their mark felt in debate over school board prayer A school board is getting help from ministers in the Tangipahoa Parish, a "pastoral exurb" of New Orleans, as it fights for the right to start meetings with a lengthy prayer noting Jesus. The board used to say the prayer before the American Civil Liberties Union and one parent objected in 2003, reports Adam Nossiter of The Associated Press. (Read more) The ACLU, with support from a federal judge in February, argues the prayer violates the constitution's ban on government sanctioning of one religious doctrine over another. The school board is relentless in its fight, though, and is taking the issue to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. This continues the larger debate over prayer in schools, but it is an unusual case because of ministers being so involved, writes Nossiter. The school board is even receiving money for its legal battles from the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group. Such battles with the ACLU are nothing new to this school board. Previous struggles included a classroom warning against evolution, a minister who delivered pizza and sermons to students at lunch and prayers at football games. Although the board lost its case every time, that bad track record will not dissuade the members from barking up the legal ladder. "It's just like a woman putting on a girdle," board member Sandra Simmons told Nossiter. "You squelch religious liberties somewhere, it will pop up somewhere else." Former school board member Howard Nichols worries that a district with a mediocre state test ranking is focusing too much time away from academics. "The people behind all this are fundamentalist Christians," he said. "They have stampeded the board by these massive demonstrations. I think we are diverting a tremendous amount of time that could be spent in improving test scores." Judge providing worship attendance as alternative to traditional sentences District Judge Michael Caperton is giving repeat drug and alcohol offenders in Laurel County, Kentucky, the option to attend church or another house of worship for 10 services rather than go to jail or enter rehabilitation. Legal experts said alternative sentencing is a national trend, but they had not heard of the option of attending worship, reports Alan Maimon of The Courier Journal. (Read more) "This is the first time I've heard of anything like that," Bill Dressel, a former Colorado judge and president of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nev., told the Louisville newspaper. "Alternative sentencing usually requires that people give something back to society through public service." Caperton, 50, a devout Christian, does not see providing the option as a church-state issue: "I don't think there's a church-state issue, because it's not mandatory and I say worship services instead of church," he told Maimon. Although any denomination is allowed, some civil libertarians and constitutional scholars say the option inserts religion into the courtroom and violates the Constitution's separation of church and state. David Friedman, a Louisville lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said, "The judge is saying that those willing to go to worship services can avoid jail in the same way that those who decline to go cannot. That strays from government neutrality towards religion." Tobacco turns: Burley state raises tax, farmers adjust, industry faces more change Times keep changing on Tobacco Road. Kentucky, the state with the nation's lowest cigarette tax and largest number of tobacco farmers is raising the tax tenfold tomorrow, and officials say the state will produce a lot less burley tobacco than last year. And though the federal tobacco program is over, and growers are diversifying, the industry still faces possible changes as a result of possible court and legislative action. Kentucky's cigarette tax is going from 3 cents a pack to 30. Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Jim Warren writes, "Health advocates predict ... the tax will encourage some Kentuckians to quit smoking (but) ... more smokers might have been motivated if lawmakers had approved a bigger tax increase." (Read more) Associated Press reporter Betsy Verecky reports that health officials hope one penny of the tax hike, earmarked for researchers at cancer centers in Kentucky, "will help them better understand and treat cancer." The state will split the money between the University of Louisville's James Graham Brown Cancer Center and the University of Kentucky's Lucille P. Markey Cancer Center. (Read more) Kentucky has the nation's highest adult smoking rate at nearly 31 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has some of the highest rates of tobacco-related tumors and lung cancer. Meanwhile, from Washington, AP's Hilary Roxe writes, "The decision by Congress last year to end Depression-era price and production controls for U.S. tobacco didn't close the federal debate. The future of tobacco is still under discussion in court and on Capitol Hill, and the industry could still face significant changes," especially if tobacco companies are found guilty of civil racketeering in a trial expected to end in June. The companies could face more suits, and more attention from lawmakers, said Richard A. Daynard, president of the Boston-based Tobacco Control Resource Center. (Read more) Scott Balin, a former American Heart Association attorney who helped organize a coalition of farmers and health officials, tells Roxe, "The tobacco issue has not been resolved. That's the bottom line." AP's Bruce Schreiner reports from Louisville that without the federal program, growers are moving more cautiously into a free market. he cites a Department of Agriculture report projecting a 31 percent drop in burley acreage in Kentucky, which "traditionally produces 70 percent of the nation's burley, the lighter-colored tobacco that is combined with the darker flue-cured variety in cigarettes," he writes. (Read more) Production may not drop that much, because growers are under pressure to improve yields in a market that will pay them about one-fourth less per pound than last year, under contracts with cigarette companies. Herald-Leader reporter Beverly Fortune writes of how some former burley farmers have turned to goats as an alternative cash crop. Larry Yearsley, she writes, "bought his first goats five years ago. Today he has a herd of more than 80 nannies and kids on the farm where he grew up, renamed Just Kiddin' Boer Goats Farm." (Read more) Kentucky's goat population ranks sixth in the nation with 70,000 animals, according to the Kentucky Agricultural Statistics Service, up from 16,223 goats in 1997. Meanwhile, the cable channel RFD-TV is scheduled to telecast a news feature tonight on Kentucky's cattle industry, the largest east of the Mississippi. The report will be on The Cattle Show at 9 p.m. EDT. In Virginia, AP's Stephanie Stoughton nicely summarized a complex phenomenon that "dramatically altering the industry"-- small cigarette companies that started after the 1998 settlement between states and big companies, but are now being forced by state legislatures to pay into the settlement. (Read more) Mobile health clinic a welcome sight at 'pit stops' in rural Oregon, Nevada A 79-year-old physician is delivering health care via a mobile home in areas of Oregon where health care is hard to find. The 79-year-old doctor, Dr. Robert Morrison, dressed in all-black Western wear, parks his trailer in Fields, a rural pit stop with a cafe, motel and store at the base of Steens Mountain in southeast Oregon, writes Matthew Preusch of The Associated Press (Read more) He also makes similar trips to Crane, Drewsey and Denio, Nev., with his son, Kern, hauling the trailer. For many rural Oregon and Nevada residents, visits to Morrison's trailer are the closest they'll get to a hospital, writes Preusch. The ailments Morrison commonly sees include hypertension, bronchitis, emphysema, diabetes and high blood pressure, all of which require regular care and can lead to serious illness. "He also spends a fair amount of time pulling barnyard splinters from ranchers' hands or mending busted-up buckaroos. He once cut a cancerous growth off the face of an itinerant laborer," Preusch writes. "Morrison's visits may seem a quaint throwback to the days when country doctors made the rounds by horse and buckboard," Preusch reports. "But the trailer is also one answer to a modern health care conundrum common in the wide-open West: how to provide care to scattered rural residents. Lack of care is particularly acute in the area Morrison services, an expanse of high desert roughly the size of Connecticut that's home to about 300 people." Kansas county commissioner targets rural residents with tax proposal Johnson County Commissioner John Segale's tax proposal seeks to squeeze out funds from rural residents. The levy would affect Johnson County's unincorporated areas: houses in rural subdivisions and little acreages south of Overland Park and Olathe, reports columnist Mike Hendricks of Kansas City Star. (Read more) Segale argues that rural residents often demand and receive city-like services, but they avoid a city tax levy. Police protection and road maintenance in the unincorporated areas are subsidized by city residents. That will remain the same until rural areas are annexed or Segale’s proposal passes, reports Hendricks. “I think that it’s fair,” Segale told him. The Shawnee resident has no unincorporated land in his district. “It was something I promised to work on during my campaign and I’m not giving up.” Segale views his proposal as a way to level the playing field, since city residents already pay for some county services. Ninety-six percent of the Johnson County population lives in cities, and rural residents don’t pay for city street repairs or for police officers’ salaries. "Only in the unincorporated areas does the county maintain roads and provide regular sheriff patrol (except under contract with some cities)," writes Hendricks. "The cost is $13 million a year. And every county taxpayer foots that bill, not just the 15,000 who live in the county." Plan for off-reservation casino pits Oregon governor versus preservationists Life is calm and serene in the historic mill town of Cascade Locks, Ore., in the Columbia River Gorge, 40 miles east of Portland. The town's rural charm attracts tourists, but local, state and Indian leaders foresee a more lucrative future: a huge casino that they project could draw 3 million people a year and save a faltering economy, reports Sam Howe Verhovek of the Los Angeles Times. (Read more) Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat, strongly supports the proposal, which would establish the first Oregon casino built on non-Indian land and one of just a few off-reservation Indian-owned casinos in the country. When the governor reached an agreement last month with prospective owner and operator, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, controversy erupted over its location, Verhovek reports. "Opponents say the idea is something close to blasphemy, because the Gorge, a spectacular ribbon of waterfalls, forested trails and stunning overlooks across the mighty Columbia, is a federally designated national scenic area, and it is intended to stay scenic," writes Verhovek. "But proponents, including the governor and tribal leaders, say a building can be designed in harmony with the view, and they point to a major benefit to the cash-strapped state government here: Under the agreement, 17 percent of casino profits would be turned over to the state for tuition and health programs. That could amount to $30 million or more annually." The casino plan must clear some major hurdles before it could be constructed in an industrial-zoned area. The U.S. Interior Department, one of the agencies involved in approving deals for off-reservation gambling, recently said it would not make a final decision on the casino until it approves a trust for the land used. Environmental regulators tighten ethics rules on air-pollution permit reviews Kentucky environmental regulators are going to require a more stringent conflict-of-interest policy for private companies that review and draft air pollution permits. "The decision follows criticism by a legislative oversight committee over the hiring of two consulting firms by regulators to help reduce a backlog of industry-requested permits," writes James Bruggers of The Courier-Journal. (Read more) Mark York, spokesman for the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet, wrote, "Until Secretary (LaJuana) Wilcher is confident with the process, no work has been or will be assigned to either company." Cabinet officials awarded contracts totaling $700,000 in April and May to the two firms. It's the first time state regulators have turned to private companies that also work for industrial clients to help with pollution oversight required under federal environmental laws. The contracts went to Kenvirons, a Frankfort-based firm, and New Jersey-based Enviroplan Consulting. USDA concludes University of Nevada mistreated research animals A seven-month federal investigation has concluded that the University of Nevada mistreated research animals, and the school will pay an $11,400 fine to settle the case, reports The Associated Press. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cited the university's Reno campus for 46 federal animal welfare violations between May 2004 and March 2005. (Read more) Violations included repeatedly leaving 10 research pigs with inadequate water and housing, poor sanitation at animal care facilities, lack of veterinary care, and failure to investigate animal neglect complaints. School officials agreed to pay the fine, but did not agree with all the agency's findings. University President John Lilley said in a statement the school is "firmly committed to the appropriate treatment of animals under our care." The investigation began when associate professor Hussein S. Hussein, an internationally-known animal nutrition researcher, alleged research animal abuse in complaints to the USDA last summer. The Reno Gazette-Journal later reported that 38 pregnant sheep died in October 2002 while locked inside a gate without food or water for three days. Hussein filed two pending lawsuits in federal court against the university, Lilley and other administrators accusing them of reprisals and trying to fire him since he complained. PETA spy, no longer living a lie, reveals her true identity and her regrets For the past three years, Lisa Leitten applied for jobs at animal businesses in Missouri, Texas and Virginia. Although she gave biographical details about her real life, Leitten left out the fact that she worked for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and that she liked to wear a hidden camera, reports Bonnie Pfister of The Associated Press. (Read more) Leitten called her last assignment for PETA her most wrenching: nine months in a Virginia lab owned by Princeton, N.J.-based biomedical firm Covance Co. There, she says, monkeys were denied medical care and hurt by technicians. The company denies the claims and has accused Leitten of illegally working under cover. Two weeks ago, PETA presented Leitten's assertions about Covance in video footage and a massive report to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and Virginia prosecutors, calling for regulators to shutter the company's Vienna, Va., lab. "This was my third assignment, and my final one," Leitten said in a recent interview with The Associated Press, the first time she has publicly revealed her identity. "You never forget the things that you've seen." The intrigue of undercover work had outweighed Leitten's initial worries when she took the PETA job. "At first I thought, 'There's no way.' The fear of everything, of having to wear covert equipment and move around. But then it sounded sort of exciting at the same time," she said. Friday, May 27, 2005 FCC's top priority is broadband expansion, Chairman Kevin Martin says Expansion of high-speed Internet access, a growing issue in rural areas, will be the "No. 1 priority" for Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, he said Tuesday in an interview with Drew Clark of National Journal's Technology Daily (subscription required). "Making sure that all consumers have the opportunity and are connected to those advanced telecommunications services increases productivity, allows more overall economic growth, makes it easier for people to do work from home, take medical information to and from home [and] communicate and gather information in all kinds of ways," Martin said in the interview, one of his first since taking the chair. Getting broadband rules right "will involve not only making sure we have the right regulatory framework for that infrastructure, but addressing issues like what are the services that ride over that infrastructure and what are the social obligations that go along with that like the expectation that people have to connect to local public safety officials," he said. Chairman Martin is a native of Charlotte, N.C., and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University and Harvard University Law School. While at Chapel Hill, he was student body president and president of the North Carolina Association of Student Governments. Two-thirds of attorneys general support national shield law; see if yours does Attorneys general of at least 34 states have
agreed to support a friend-of-the-court brief, to be filed
in the U.S. Supreme Court today, "to recognize a reporter's
right to keep sources confidential in the case involving the
leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity," The
Associated Press reports.(Read
more) "Everybody's first reaction was, 'Wait
a minute. We're chief law enforcement officers of our states,
why are we going to support something that makes our jobs
harder?' But we've always recognized the importance of constitutional
protections," Shurtleff told Joe Fay in Salt Lake City.
"Society is better off with an open press and an informed
public. In addition, it's important everyone knows what the
rules are. Reporters in fairness need to know they're going
to be protected. That argument has turned a lot of AGs around."
Sierra Club says pickup-truck mileage, air quality can be improved Farmers, carpenters, ranchers and other workers dependent on trucks want better mileage, the Sierra Club says in its report, "Shifting Out Of Reverse: Making Pickup Trucks Go Farther on a Gallon of Gas." The report shows "by installing proven, off-the-shelf technology, in light trucks, the average American pickup truck can go farther – much farther – on a gallon of gas. This would save the drivers money at the pump, curb global warming, and decrease America’s dependence on foreign oil," says the Sierra Club in a news release on its Web site. For the full report, in .pdf form, including average driver and state savings data, click here. For example, "Kentucky pickup truck drivers would have saved more than $314,371,149 at the gas pump last year and cut global warming pollution by 2,528,696 tons if U.S. automakers had used existing automotive technology to improve fuel economy of pickups," according to the report. With high gas prices this Memorial Day weekend, the report and online gas savings calculator "demonstrate that the technology exists to make all vehicles — from sedans, to SUVs, to pickup trucks — get better fuel economy to save money, curb global warming, and cut oil consumption," says a news release from Aloma Dew of the club's Midwest office. “The biggest single step we can take for saving money at the gas pump and cutting pollution is to make our vehicles go farther on a gallon of gas,” she said. “Detroit has the technology to make all vehicles, including pickup trucks, get better fuel economy. It’s time to put that technology to work.” Greyhound, often a rural connection, cutting service to 260 more locations Travelers in many rural communities will have fewer places to hitch a ride on a Greyhound when the nation's largest intercity bus company scales back its stops next month. The announcement about Eastern states came after Greyhound announced it would discontinue service to hundreds of cities in the Southwest and Northwest. Greyhound Lines will discontinue service at 260 stops, mainly in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, Greyhound Lines spokeswoman Anna Folmnsbee said. Kentucky is losing more than half its stops; Indiana is losing 22 of 52, reports The Indianapolis Star.(Read more) In Kentucky, company officials told The Associated Press the remaining stops have the highest customer demand and passengers should see faster service between major national destinations as a result. (Read more) Kentucky cities affected include Cadiz, Franklin, Grayson, Hopkinsville, Horse Cave, Lebanon, Marion, Mattoon, Mayfield, Morehead, Morganfield, Mount Sterling, Munfordville, Park City, Sonora, Sturgis, Walton, West Point and Winchester. Other stops affected include the Job Corps Center at Morganfield. Columnist: Redirect farm subsidies to create fresh-food systems for urban areas "Is the time ripe to take some of the billions in subsidies now flowing to big commodity-crop operators and focus instead on sustainable farm production in and around the citistate regions where 80 percent of us live?" asks syndicated columnist Neal R. Peirce. (Read more, via The Seattle Times) Peirce quotes Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., as saying farm subsidies, currently "flowing to six states to produce 13 commodities that in the main we don't need, like corn, wheat, cotton, and rice," should be redirected "to build sustainable agriculture, create a farmer's market in every community, help farmers protect our land and water, preserve our viewsheds, foster land banks and control erosion." Peirce writes that the notion is easy to dismiss, given the "hammerlock" of big-business agriculture and President Bush's quick retreat from his proposal to limit subsidies to indvidual producers -- but he also says millions of Americans are looking for fresher, tastier and healthier food, and reports that "several hundred school districts throughout the nation have adopted forms of a 'farm-to-school' program to introduce locally grown farm products." He quotes the Community Food Security Coalition as saying that when such programs are combined with nutrition education, farm visits, school gardens and classroom instruction, reports the "children can develop healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime." AG says Ark. meth law working, but deadlier form arriving; Ala. gets similar law Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe says the state’s laws enacted to curb supplies of homemade methamphetamine are working, but a home-brew is being replaced by a deadlier, more refined form. Beebe told a Fayetteville Rotary Club users of the illegal drug are finding it more difficult to supply their habit at home, but higher-grade methamphetamine from large-scale, out-of-state suppliers is moving in to fill the vacuum, reports Doug Thompson of Stephens Media Group's Arkansas News Bureau. (Read more) Beebe supported laws passed in the last legislative session to restrict the sale of cold medicines needed for illegal methamphetamine cooking. Beebe told Rotarians, "Oklahoma officials say the law has run the meth cookers off. Your sheriff was complaining that it ran them off to Northwest Arkansas," but now the [Arkansas] cold medication laws are expected to have a similar effect, Thompson writes. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley signed into law a bill requiring shoppers to show identification and sign a register to buy Sudafed and other cold tablets, writes Kim Chandler of The Birmingham News. (Read more) Pseudoephedrine, often obtained from cold tablets, is meth's key ingredient. "There is an epidemic going on in Alabama today, and it's a man-made epidemic," Riley said at the bill-signing ceremony. Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi recently approved similar proposals. Without such a law, Alabama would become the hot spot for meth cookers, said Attorney General Troy King. Cigarette taxes continue smokin' in several states, but revenue use debated MAINE students flocked to the State House in Augusta yesterday to support increasing the state's cigarette tax and describe how they've been affected by tobacco-users, reports WCSH-TV in Portland. (Read more) "Supporters say the proposed $1.50-per-pack increase would prevent 9,900 smoking-related deaths and save the state $438 million in health costs," says Channel Six News. NEW HAMPSHIRE has the lowest cigarette tax in the Northeast United States. Supporters say cross-border sales are not an issue. They say there has been no evidence of New Hampshire cigarette sales going up when Maine has increased cigarette taxes in the past. MINNESOTA Gov. Tim Pawlenty would dedicate the entire $380 million from his state's proposed cigarette tax increase to treat smoking related diseases, says Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck. (Read more) Pawlenty has proposed a 75-cent increase and supporters want all of the revenue sent to state health programs, writes Scheck. Pawlenty is calling the charge a "health impact fee," but critics are not happy that the "health fee" wouldn't be spent entirely on health care programs, reports Scheck. In LOUISIANA, several health groups support a proposed cigarette tax increase. The State Legislature is considering increasing the state's cigarette tax by $1, reports Bill Noonan of WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge. (Read more) A recent poll shows 69 percent of Louisiana voters support the increase. Also, more than 20 public health organizations support it, including the American Cancer Society. Thousands of MICHIGAN smokers are getting bills in the mail because the state is trying to collect taxes not paid by smokers who bough cigarettes online, reports WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids. (Read more) In OKLAHOMA, a 55-cents-per-pack increase is performing below state officials expectations, says Kevin Sims of KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, and a law loophole may be to blame. (Read more) State officials projected revenue to top $70 million, but so far, the tax has generated about $23 million, Sims reported. Stores don't have to pay the higher state tax on products they already had in stock. Nebraska governor to be asked to fund rural air service called 'vital link' Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman will be asked today to fund the Nebraska State Airline Authority Act -- a law passed 15 years ago to let the state subsidize an intrastate airline, a vital link between urban and rural land. Bob Unzicker, a commissioner for the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, told Tracy Overstreet of the Grand Island Independent, "I think all airlines will have to have subsidies." (Read more) Unzicker doesn't think a few select Nebraska cities with commercial airports should be the only ones paying for a statewide service, so he wants the Nebraska State Airline Authority Act funded, writes Overstreet. The act includes provisions for intrastate commercial airline service, which was once funded before a seven-member board was disbanded. The act states that lawmakers found the state needed air transportation to link the rural and urban areas that are separated by great distances, Overstreet writes. North Dakota health-care providers get federal grant to improve rural wellness A group of northeast North Dakota organizations has received a $460,000-plus federal grant to implement a special health and fitness cooperative; the Wellness Interventions Lasting a Lifetime (WILL) network. Joyce Rice, project director, told Rona K. Johnson of the Grand Forks Herald, "It's a collaboration to encourage wellness, healthy lifestyles and to provide education on disease awareness, management and prevention." She said residents of Cavalier County, northwest Pembina County and northern Ramsey County will be able to take advantage of the network. The grant covers three years. (Read more) Rice and a consortium of health providers gathered information from the different resources in the area, wrote the application for the Rural Health Care Services Outreach Grant and submitted it to the Office of Rural Health Policy under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, writes Johnson The network will concentrate on chronic disabling diseases, such as diabetes, obesity and cardiac rehab, mental health and occupational health. Rice told Johnson, "We hope to go into the various businesses and give programs on occupational hazards." The network also will focus on sports injury prevention and education. Although some programs already exist, the network will enhance those programs and create more, she writes. The 'governator' restores rural crime-fighting funds in California budget Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut rural crime fighting funds from his original budget proposal as a way to cut costs, he said, but has since reinstated $18.5 million for 37 sheriff’s departments. "The $500,000 San Benito’s department will receive through the Rural County Crime Prevention Act - which funded a second south county deputy position, a correctional officer and a school resource officer last year - will again fund those staff positions in 2005-2006," writes Erin Musgrave of the Hollister Free Lance. (Read more) The local sheriff told Musgrave he was confident Schwarzenegger would reinstate the critical funding. Otherwise, he would have had to lay off deputies and freeze deputy positions.With the money restored, the department can afford the approximately $170,000 to fund the three positions, he told the newspaper. Most law officials are designating the money for staffing.The California State Sheriff’s Association was active in fighting to keep the funding, and expects to fight the same battle every year, writes Musgrave. Lawsuit to block tribal gambling deals dropped by California horse track operators California horse track operators have dropped a lawsuit seeking to block Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $1- billion casino deal with Indian tribes, freeing the state to issue bonds to pay for transportation projects. "The suit filed in Alameda County Superior Court sought to nullify a deal Schwarzenegger reached with five Indian tribes that gave them an unlimited number of slot machines in return for paying the state additional revenue," writes Brian Melley of The Associated Press. (Read more) The deal was part of the governor's plan last year to bring in more revenue while the state faced a multi-billion dollar fiscal crisis. Race tracks unsuccessfully fought to get slot machines to compete with wealthy Indian casinos. The tracks challenged the law that approved the first of two compacts the governor negotiated with tribes. Tracks said the law was unconstitutional because, among other reasons, it gave special privileges to the tribes and would have prevented voters from extending casino gambling beyond tribes, writes Melley. Utah bio/chemical weapons
testing facility may be spared from base closings “Dugway Proving Ground military base in Utah's west desert where defenses against deadly biological and chemical weapons are tested is a constant target of closure rumors and speculation,” writes Leigh Detham of the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City. (Read more) But one thing is certain — Dugway's mission is valuable to the U.S. Department of Defense. The facility received top rankings from the Pentagon in a report released to the Base Realignment and Closure commission (BRAC), writes Detham. Rick Mayfield, executive director of the Utah Defense Alliance, told Detham, "This is a sign that somebody is finally paying attention that they do great things out there." Mayfield also told her somebody wasn't paying attention in 1995 when the Army admitted it used incorrect data when recommending a Dugway realignment. The Army wanted to move elements of Dugway's facility to Arizona, but BRAC decided to keep the facility. Daniel Boone logging proposal has foresters, environmentalists at loggerheads Environmentalists are opposing a move by the U.S. Forest Service to cut trees and burn ground clutter near a pristine trout stream in the southernmost portion of the Daniel Boone National Forest. "The latest battle between environmentalist and foresters on how to best manage the federal land is taking place on the hillsides around Rock Creek, which originates in Tennessee and flows into Kentucky south of Stearns," writes Roger Alford of The Associated Press. (Read more) The plan is to cut trees on 1,619 acres, build 8.6 miles of roads, burn ground clutter on 7,560 acres and spread herbicide on more than 1,000 acres, writes Alford. Perrin de Jong, head of the environmental group Kentucky Heartwood, told AP the group opposes any such activities around Rock Creek, a stream so pure in its upper reaches that the Kentucky Division of Water made it part of the state's "Wild River" program. The proposal's opponents asked for an impact study to gauge the proposed project's effects. De Jong told AP, "Rock Creek is too valuable ... for us to be logging, road-building and spraying herbicides. We need to protect it and make sure the place remains ... wild and scenic." Rex Mann, a forest service spokesman in Winchester, Ky., told AP no logging would occur near the stream and water quality would not change. As defendants sit in West Virginia jails, the cost of housing them keeps rising In two weeks, West Virginia's newest regional
jail is set to open in Randolph County, completing the transition
from 55 county jails to 10 regional facilities across the
state. This comes as several counties are complaining about
the cost of housing inmates and the justice system's snail-like
pace is to blame, reports Anna Sale for West Virginia
Public Broadcasting. (Click
here to listen) On May 20, counties paid $48.50 per inmate for more than 1,900 inmates in regional jails, costing over $93,000, reports Sale. And nearly 60 percent were awaiting trials on felony charges, according to the Regional Jail Authority. Meetings between counties and the authority have ended in stalemates. Other states have already taken legal action to curb the problem of long stays in jail. Ohio law requires that incarcerated pretrial felons go to trial within 90 days of their arrest. In Maryland, each state court established time standards five years ago. And in Kentucky, the attorney general is traveling the state urging a rocket docket of their own to encourage plea agreements before the sometimes lengthy wait for indictments. Appalachian Trail and Blue Ridge Parkway gearing up for Memorial weekend If you have some lightweight backpacking gear and a crafty trail name, then the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail might be your perfect Memorial Day weekend getaway, suggests John Derrick of The Shelby Star in North Carolina. You see, people generally come up with a unique trail name before setting out and conversing with fellow hikers is just as enjoyable as taking in the sights, he writes. (Read more) One stop on the Appalachian Trail is Hot Springs, "a neat little town with the AT running straight through it, economically and socially very linked to hiking, rafting and other hippie-pinko-weird activities I enjoy," writes Derrick. Just as warm weather brings in more hikers, the spring season also seems to attract more travelers on the Blue Ridge Parkway. One of its last two roadblocks will be lifted at noon today near Mount Mitchell, N.C., restoring nearly total access to the road just in time for Memorial Day weekend. Rock slides and 20 inches of rain from two September hurricanes initially closed almost half of the 252-mile parkway, causing $8 million in road damage, reports Dianne Whitacre of The Charlotte Observer. (Read more) All that remains closed is an 8-mile stretch near Linville Falls and a 20-mile detour is in place. Last fall's slides led to thousands of tourists staying away even as sections of the parkway reopened, reports Whitacre. Memorial Day Weekend: A reminder of its meaning The Bivouac Of The Dead - by Theodore O Hara (first and last verses) The muffled drum's sad roll has beat / the soldier's
last tattoo; Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead! Thursday, May 26, 2005 Picturesque, small Western towns, plagued by out-migration, facing extinction Towns like Chugwater, Wyo. face big choices: Grow or die. "As a population boom sweeps the West, communities watch children leave for the cities, residents age and towns fall off the map," writes Angie Wagner of The Associated Press. "Some towns feel their rural identities slipping away. They try to cling to the past, or imagine a future as retirement havens, recreation hubs or suburbs for growing cities." (Click to read more) William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. told Wager, "The West is clearly becoming the frontier in a different way now." From 1990 to 2003, the growth rate of Western towns with 2,500 or fewer people was four times the rate for the rest of the country, according to Census Bureau figures. Jon Bailey, director of research and analysis for the Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons, Neb., told her, "So many of (these communities) have the desire to be saved, but it's going to have to come from within." Chugwater is four blocks by seven blocks, but has a Web site, on which the locals tell the world, "Our commitment to excellence and our progressive attitude is very evident throughout the community." Wagner writes, "You can fill your tank at the gas station at the end of town or grab a bowl of famous Chugwater Chili -- the town's claim to fame -- but if you're looking for much else, you've probably taken a wrong turn." William Freudenburg, professor of environment and society at University of California-Santa Barbara and president of the Rural Sociological Society, told AP that Western towns should market beautiful scenery and recreation opportunities to newcomers such as software designers, architects, carpenters, plumbers -- people who have made money elsewhere and can live anywhere they want. Tobacco settlement money for anti-smoking ads diverted to senior-citizen program The North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission, funded by part of the state's share of the national tobacco settlement, has canceled plans to greatly expand a teenager anti-smoking campaign. "The additional money is expected to be diverted to N.C. Senior Care, a prescription drug program for low-income senior citizens, according to a letter to the state Division of Purchase & Contract written by Jim Davis, executive director of the commission," writes David Ranii of The News & Observer. The commission also funds Senior Care, which, he writes, is experiencing increasing enrollment. (Read more) Gov. Mike Easley is backing the move. Press secretary Sherri Johnson, told the Raleigh paper, "The governor and the Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission made a commitment to our seniors to fund a prescription drug plan. We need to make sure this commitment is met before other educational efforts are planned.” Poll shows support for New Hampshire cigarette-tax and gambling proposals New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch's plan to balance the budget with a higher cigarette tax posted high approval ratings in a new Becker Institute poll. The figures also showed significant support for statewide gambling as a source of revenue, reports Tom Fahey of the New Hampshire Union Leader. (Read more) "Lynch wants to boost the 52-cent cigarette tax by 28 cents. The tax hike had approval of nearly four out of five respondents, 78 percent, who said it is the preferred way to balance the budget. Sixty-four percent said they 'strongly' approve," reports Fahey, the Manchester newspaper's statehouse bureau chief. "Gambling, the Senate's backup plan to fill a deficit, also did well in the poll , with approval ratings between 68 percent and 51 percent. Video slot machines at the state's four race tracks got the highest approval, while a private casino in the North Country including roulette, slots and other games ranked lowest," writes Fahey. Pastor removes anti-Koran sign after congregants vote, convention objects A North Carolina pastor who posted a sign in front of his church saying "The Koran needs to be flushed!" removed the sign Wednesday after his congregation voted to do so, and apologized. The actions came after four Southern Baptist Convention officials said the sign in Forest City, 60 miles west of Charlotte, may be endangering overseas missionaries, reports Ken Garfield of the Charlotte Observer. (read more) Rev. Creighton Lovelace of Danieltown Baptist Church at first refused to apologize for the sign, "on one of the most heavily traveled highways" in Rutherford County, US 221, reported Josh Humphries of the Daily Courier in Forest City. For the 9,300-circulation local paper's initial story and picture of the sign, click here. In a followup story, Lovelace claimed he was doing God's work and the sign would stay. "My Bible teaches me that I am to stand and not be ashamed of the truth of God's word and that this, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Jehovah's Witness translation of the Bible, to me, that is not God's word," he said Tuesday. But 20 members of the church voted unanimously Wednesday to remove the sign, the Observer reported. The Daily Courier reported that Lovelace is commander of the Rutherford Rifles, the recently formed chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and he praised the South and chanted "Save the South" during a rally last month at a now-closed Forest City store called The Southern National Patriot. Lovelace said the Bible demands that southern white Christians should be separated from other peoples, but he denied promoting hatred of others. "I do not hate people of other faiths, I merely hate the false doctrine," he said. Seema Reilly, a Muslim who was born in Pakistan and lives in Rutherford County, site of Forest City, told the local paper she felt angered and threatened when she saw the sign on Saturday. "We need a certain degree of tolerance," she told Humphries. "That sign doesn't really reflect what I think this county is about." University of Kentucky restores rural home health effort in nine counties The University of Kentucky has reversed its decision to cut a program that provides home health visits and medicine for rural residents in nine Western Kentucky counties. The school changed its mind after hearing from people who use the Kentucky Homeplace program and officials in those counties, writes James Malone of The Courier-Journal Western Kentucky Bureau. (Read more) Karen Troutman, a program recipient, told Malone she had felt abandoned and "It was a little scary." Troutman, 50, of Paducah, is a disabled horse trainer who gets diabetes medicine. She told the newspaper, "Having this service makes a difference. It means I can do something in life other than buy medicine." Judy Jones Owens, director of the UK Center for Rural Health in Hazard, told Malone that UK had notified six of the program's 39 employees their positions would be eliminated because of a lack of state money. That would have affected about 4,300 people in Ballard, Carlisle, Crittenden, Greenup, Livingston, Marshall, McCracken, Union and Webster counties. But yesterday, UK officials said they would spend $175,000 to keep the positions through June 2006. Owens told the Courier-Journal, "It's a program of last resort for people with no insurance or high deductibles, and when you cut a program there's not many places for people to go." The $1.9 million Kentucky Homeplace program serves about 15,000 people in 58 counties and is administered by UK for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, writes Malone. Pennsylvania newspaper supports bill to ban on mountaintop-removal mining Concern over mountaintop-removal mining is moving from the pages of newspapers in Central Appalachia, main site of the method, to papers in nearby states. It "is an abomination that would be an outrage in a Third World country," The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa., said in an editorial yesterday, saying it "could very well rank as the worst defilement of the environment to be found anywhere in the country. .(Read more) "Amazingly, it has become mining as usual in parts of West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee," the paper says. "Literally removing the tops of mountains to get at the coal seams below, filling in valleys and streams in the process, is environmental destruction at the extreme. And it's a financial and health disaster for the people living nearby. The practice should be outlawed." The paper endorsed a bill introduced by U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., and Christopher Shays, R-Conn., called the Clean Water Protection Act, which would prohibit the burial of waterways and thus stop the valley fills essential to mountaintop-removal coal mining, which is allowed under an exemption that was added to the 1977 federal strip-mine law shortly before its final passage. Miners testify firings followed safety complaints; mine officials dispute claim A coal miner with 11 years experience testified at a federal mine-safety hearing yesterday in Pikeville, Ky. he had never feared for his life until he was caught on a runaway scoop heading toward three co-workers. Wade Damron said, "I started hollering, 'No brakes! No brakes!' I had to put it into the rib (mine wall) to stop it." He was "one of four miners who testified before a federal administrative law judge that a Letcher County coal company fired them for complaining about safety conditions at the underground mine where they worked," writes Alan Maimon of The Courier-Journal. (Read more) The U.S. Department of Labor filed discrimination complaints against Misty Mountain Mining Inc. on behalf of the miners, who are seeking unspecified monetary damages and reinstatement. The mine company owner and superintendent testified safety was emphasized, Maimon writes for the Louisville newspaper. The three-day hearing continues today. A ruling by Administrative Law Judge T. Todd Hodgdon is expected in about three months, and could be appealed to the federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. The Labor Department is seeking fines of $40,000 -- $5,000 against Misty Mountain and $2,500 each against Ratliff and Stanley Osborne, the company's owner, for each of the cases involved. Project will remove contaminants from coal ash, turn it into additive for concrete Researchers at the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) will lead a $9 million research project to remove contaminants and convert coal ash into an additive that enhances concrete. The CAER researchers are working with Louisville Gas and Electric and the U.S. Department of Energy on the project, which is funded by a $4.5 million Energy Department clean coal power commercial demonstration grant. Cemex Corp. is financing $3.6 million of the project, with CAER picking up the rest, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. (Read more) UK President Lee Todd announced the joint venture as one of UK's "Commonwealth Collaboratives" projects. He made the announcement as part of a statewide tour this week. This project, designed to encourage economic development, will convert costly coal ash burned at electricity-generating plants into pozzolan, a saleable additive that enhances concrete performance, strength and durability. The commercial reuse of purified ash also can help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide generated by burning coal at power plants, Robl said. A demonstration plant is expected to be in operation at Ghent in the spring of 2008. Cemex Corp., a global cement company, has a license to use the technology developed at and patented by UK and CAER to create replica plants across the country, they report. Scam artists target rural Maine communities; warnings issued, money lost Police are warning that con men and Internet swindlers are targeting people in small, rural Maine communities. Pittsfield police are investigating four alleged scams that occurred in the past two weeks, the biggest involving an elderly Pittsfield woman was taken for $25,000 that she willingly wrote in checks to a man who befriended her and convinced her to give him the money, reports The Bangor Daily News. (Read more) In another case, a disabled Pittsfield man was cheated out of nearly $5,000 after a different man befriended him, moved into his home, stole a check and forged it. Police Sgt. Timothy Roussin told the newspaper,"Con men aren't just on television. They are right here in our neighborhoods." Police are also investigating two alleged Internet scams. One woman was told she had won a large portion of a $1.8 million lottery prize out of Great Britain, while another victim was told she had inherited $8,000 from somebody in Florida, they write. The women lost several thousand dollars between them that they sent to collect their money, but the money orders and checks they received in return were bogus. The FBI is assisting with the multi-state investigation. In Eastern Maine, police said at least two people in Baileyville, which has fewer than 1,700 residents, have lost money via Internet scams, writes the Daily News. Late spring, not bugs, leaves Kentucky-Virginia border mountaintops bald Eastern Kentucky residents haunted by the belief that insects left their mountaintop trees leafless can rest easy. Bugs didn't do it. U.S. Forest Service tree expert Steve Kuennen, told Roger Alford of The Associated Press, that insects aren't to blame and the mountaintops will turn green in coming weeks. (Read more) "The barren trees on high peaks along the Kentucky-Virginia border haven't yet taken on their spring foliage because they were zapped by frost and snow in late-season cold snaps," writes Alford. Kuennen told him people have been calling his office in the Jefferson National Forest to ask why the trees haven't leafed out. Kuennen told AP, "They'll be OK. Some of the trees are starting to bud back out now." National Weather Service records show Black Mountain in Harlan County, Ky., had eight inches of snow April 4 and a low temperature of 25 degrees, followed by four inches April 24 with a low of 20, Alford writes. Steve Brooks, director of Virginia Forest Watch, told Alford all trees on Clinch Mountain in Virginia normally are leafed out in early May, but this year the ridge still is barren. Rural Calendar: Great Smokies Beetle Blitz June 2-15 The Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Cooperative and Foundation is inviting "all interested volunteers and scientists" to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the "ATBI Beetle Blitz" June 2-15. ATBI is the Great Smokies All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory, which will describe all species of life, and their distribution, in the park. Click here for more on SAMAB including its strategic plan, activities, and data and information on the region. Contact Robert S. Turner, Ph.D., Executive Director, Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere (SAMAB) at 314 UT Conference Center, Knoxville TN 37996-4138, or 865-974-4585 (fax 974-4609). Wednesday, May 25, 2005 Rural Midwest out-migration exaggerated, revival misguided, say experts The decline of large portions of the rural Midwest has been framed as an epic out-migration, prompting numerous proposals from government and policy-makers. Fifty-four of Kansas' 105 counties have fewer people now than they did in the early 1900s, but "A group of economists at Kansas University says reports of the decline of rural Kansas have been greatly exaggerated and that attempts to revive the countryside have been misguided," writes Scott Rothschild of the Lawrence Journal-World . (Read more) Peter Orazem, a Koch visiting professor of business economics, told Rothschild, "A lot of rural areas are doing really well, and the ones that are doing the best are no longer rural areas." Orazem, Arthur Hall, executive director of the KU Center for Applied Economics, and Georgeanne Artz, an extension economist at Iowa State University, have produced two recent studies on rural development. Orazem argues the decline of rural Kansas is misdiagnosed because many rural counties have thrived over the past few decades. The economists have detected a "statistical curiosity" that has big policy-making implications. Every decade, the Census Bureau classifies counties as urban, metropolitan and rural. When rural counties grow to a certain population, they are reclassified as urban or metropolitan, Rothschild writes. That leaves policy-makers examining the counties that aren't doing well to determine what is wrong instead of trying to copy what the developing rural counties, many of which grew faster than the national average, did right. This distortion, they say, can lead to some wrong-headed policies to stop the reported decline in rural population, argue Orazem and his colleagues. They say that to see what is needed for rural counties, determine what the common denominator is for the ones that have grown rapidly. Rural info-tech outsourcing called viable alternative to sending jobs offshore A Minnesota high-tech industry official says companies should think about going to the 'North Shore' ( the Great Lakes area) rather than offshore when they're outsourcing their information technology (IT) services. Jim Gufstafson says outsourcing IT to rural America can be a cost-effective alternative to places such as India and can help boost the economies in cities such as Duluth, writes Larry Oakes, of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Gustafson is chief executive of Saturn Systems, a Duluth software engineering company that hopes to capitalize on a "Rural IT Outsourcing" marketing strategy that is getting attention in other struggling cities such as Greenville, N.C., and Jonesboro, Ark., Oakes reports. (Read more) Advocates say that while surveys show almost half the nation's companies have gone offshore for IT services or are considering it, they may save not much by doing so. Gufstafson says time-zone differences, language barriers, cultural divides and data-security concerns all reduce the offshore advantage, Oakes writes. A study commissioned by New Jobs for New York, a not-for-profit economic development organization, shows that while many U.S. companies say they've cut their bill almost in half by going offshore, the actual savings is more like 20 to 25 percent when the extra cost of doing business long-distance is factored in. That makes domestic rural outsourcing sensible for many companies, said Kathy Brittain White, president of Rural Sourcing Inc. in Jonesboro, Ark. She told Oakes, "I grew up in rural Arkansas, and I saw a huge untapped potential in talented people who were unemployed." Next month her company will open an office in a former textile mill in Greenville, another area with unemployed or underemployed IT professionals. White said Rural Sourcing charges less than half for software engineering, compared to urban U.S. companies. She contends, "That makes us an alternative for smaller companies and for large companies with smaller projects." Rural Sourcing and Saturn Systems have forged partnerships with local colleges to set up a flow of interns eager for experience. Saturn hooked up with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, writes Oakes. TOBACCO Without federal program, many Kentucky farmers are getting out of tobacco When someone has farmed for decades, change of any kind is hard. The end of a way of life for many in tobacco states is very hard, especially Kentucky, where tobacco has deep economic and historic roots. "You could be talking about the death of a culture," Franklin County Agriculture Agent Keenan Bishop tells veteran Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Jim Warren, no stranger in the heart of tobacco country. Warren writes a sensitive and vivid picture of survival, skepticism and surrender at the end of the 65-year federal program of tobacco quotas and price supports, and a return to the free enterprise system. (Read more) Warren profiles farmer Terry Lunsford, who has decided to change: “Lunsford would be setting burley tobacco about now on his Jessamine County farm, laying down perfectly spaced rows of young, green plants ready to grow into gold. But without the backing of the federal tobacco support program, which ended after last growing season, Lunsford has decided not to raise tobacco. Not this year, and maybe never again." Lunsford, 50, told Warren, "I guess it's the first time in 85 years there won't be any tobacco raised on this farm. We've got the greenhouses to raise the tobacco plants, and the barns to house the tobacco, but they're all empty. It feels a little funny." Madison County farmer Evan McCord told Warren he isn't raising tobacco this year either: "You can't take away something that's been a part of your whole life and not feel different." McCord and Lunsford have company. Across Kentucky, many farmers are bailing out of tobacco, reluctantly abandoning a crop that for generations has been the mainstay for the state's farm families, Warren writes: "Most are deserting tobacco because they fear that raising the traditional crop will be too risky without the price supports and other guarantees that the old federal program provided." Debate ensues over using tobacco-settlement money to help tobacco growers Kentucky lawmakers have learned from a top state agriculture official there is dissent over a proposal to set aside for tobacco production part of the tobacco-settlement money that the state earmarked for agricultural development -- including helping tobacco growers diversify into alternative crops and livestock. Keith Rogers, executive director of the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy, told legislators Monday, "I've learned the General Assembly, the agricultural community and to some extent the Agricultural Development Board are divided on this issue." The board, which spends the half of settlement money that the legislature earmarked for agricultural development, could vote on the proposal at its June meeting. The growers' plan -- conceived as a way to help farmers who choose to continue growing leaf in the free market created by last fall's tobacco buyout -- includes a farm-improvement program for tobacco similar to 13 other model programs, writes Marcus Green of The Courier-Journal. (Read more). Supporters argue that by funding tobacco, the board would give tobacco farmers the same opportunity others have received. They point to North Carolina's recent decision to use tobacco-settlement money to explore the production of burley tobacco -- a hill-country crop grown mainly in Kentucky -- in eastern North Carolina. Mississippi trying to take tobacco-settlement funds from private health group A Mississippi judge has postponed proceedings in a lawsuit attacking $20 million in annual funding to the private Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi for its anti-tobacco programs. Circuit Judge Jaye Bradley said she would await a legislative study of whether the state's tobacco-settlement funds are being spent wisely and whether the anti-tobacco programs should continue, reports The Associated Press. (Read more) Gov. Haley Barbour, state Medicaid officials and the Mississippi Health Care Trust Fund want the $20 million cut off. A Jackson County judge in 2000 ordered the $20 million diverted to the Partnership, an anti-smoking group founded by a former state attorney general. Some lawmakers question the funding, but Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck and House Speaker Billy McCoy have endorsed it, adding that parties representing the governor, Medicaid and the Health Care Trust Fund should be heard, and will be it becomes necessary. John Corlew, an attorney for the governor's office, told the judge that legislators have failed in the past to address the issue. Corlew told Judge Bradley, "This is an issue for your court and the Mississippi Supreme Court to address. We vehemently object to these delay tactics." Barbour has said the state constitution gives the Legislature, not the court, the authority to appropriate state money. Louisiana governor proposes dedicating cigarette-tax hike to teacher pay raises Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, trying to revive her ailing $1-a-pack cigarette tax in the Louisiana House, has proposed it all be used for a $3,300 teacher pay raise, a $500 annual raise for school support workers and 5 percent pay hike for college faculty, writes John Hill of The Times of Shreveport. (Read more) The state's nearly 59,000 public school teachers and administrators would get a $2,300 raise this fall and another $1,000 the following year as the full cigarette tax proceeds came into the state treasury. That would raise Louisiana's average teacher pay from $38,300 to $41,600, close to the southern average, writes Hill. The plan is dependent on the state school board revising the formula for distributing state funds to local schools. Blanco, a Democrat, said new estimates, showing the state with $169 million in unexpected revenue for the fiscal year beginning July 1, would plug holes in the health care budget but not cover teacher raises. ENVIRONMENT Energy prices fuel Tennessee coal comeback, Alaska re-mining by Idaho firm The Alaska Department of Natural Resources says increasing prices for coal have prompted plans by Idaho company Knoll Acres to "re-mine" the waste left behind by previous coal companies at a mine near Jonesville, writes Rindi White of the Anchorage Daily News. (Read more) Reclaiming coal from waste has been done in the Lower 48, but not in Alaska, Bruce Buzby of the natural-resources department told White. Operating as Sutton Partners, Knoll plans to crush the waste, or tailings, and harvest useable coal. Company spokesman Brooks Potter, "Jonesville coal, by nature, is a relatively high-Btu, low-sulfur coal." The high-Btu coal is rare in Alaska, writes White. Potter told her the current energy market, with its high fuel and natural gas prices, makes it a perfect time to get cleaner-burning coal to market. Meanwhile, Scott Barker of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that both miners and environmentalists in Tennessee are closely watching the rising interest in the coal industry. (Read more) "Tennessee’s coal industry, spurred by skyrocketing coal prices, new technologies and the Tennessee Valley Authority’s possible leasing of its mineral rights in Campbell and Scott counties, could be poised for a comeback," Barker writes. New operators have bought coal property and millions of dollars worth of new equipment, Barker reports, but "With the new activity comes renewed resistance." Environmentalists are mobilizing against mountaintop-removal mining, which has become common in the adjoining Cumberland-Allegheny Plateau region of Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia, which Barker notes has "some of the oldest mountains on earth." New land-management rules won't save wild horses from slaughter, say critics Critics charge safeguards adopted by the Bureau of Land Management to protect wild horses removed from federal lands in the West are not strict enough to keep the mustangs out of slaughterhouses. Nancy Perry, vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, told Scott Sonner of The Associated Press, ""The protections are very weak, surprisingly weak. They will not stop horses from being sold for slaughter." (Read more) Advocacy groups want the Senate to pass a bill the House passed last week, to reinstate full protection for the horses under a 1971 law -- prohibiting sales outside the BLM's adoption program, writes Sonner. The House amendment by Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia and Republican Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky would repeal the language that Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., inserted in a spending bill in December. The Burns measure allowed the BLM to sell 8,400 of the oldest horses in long-term holding facilities and reduce what the agency and ranchers say is an overpopulation of horses on the range. As a result at least 41 mustangs sold ended up being resold and slaughtered at an Illinois meatpacking plant, Sonner writes. Fires at chemical-weapons disposal plants raise concern about process elsewhere Recent fires at chemical-weapons destruction plants in Oregon and Arkansas are raising safety concerns about a part of the process to be used at the Blue Grass Army Depot chemical neutralization plant in Kentucky. But a potential change in that process, under study as a way to cut costs for the depot, also is being viewed as a possible safety measure, writes Peter Mathews of the Lexington Herald-Leader. Members of the Chemical Destruction Community Advisory Board got a briefing yesterday on that and other proposals to make the plant smaller, reduce equipment purchases and change some processes. (Read more) Officials hope to trim the $2 billion dollar project by $200 million to $400 million . The most potentially controversial change is a proposal to ship the waste products that remain after chemical weapons are neutralized, out of state for processing. The move could save about $40 million, Mathews writes. Rockets at the Kentucky installation containing nerve agents GB and VX will be cut into pieces. During that process, fires have broken out at incinerator sites at Pine Bluff, Ark., and Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon. Processing has resumed in Pine Bluff, but the Oregon plant is still closed. Causes of the fires haven't been found, writes Mathews. Appalachian town wants stagnant reservoir, 'Lake Mistake,' cleaned up A mile-long channel of water left from a U. S. Army Corps of Engineers flood-control project in the southeastern Kentucky community of Loyall has become a nuisance and the locals want it cleaned up. Residents say the water has become a smelly breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects that make outdoor activities miserable, writes Roger Alford of The Associated Press. The disgruntled residents call the body of water "Lake Mistake" and "the Brown Lagoon." (Read more) Congress and the Corps began working to remedy flood problems in the area after a flood in 1977. Loyall's portion of the flood-control project involved a new channel around the town to relocate the Cumberland River, writes Alford. Wayne Huddleston, project manager, said an inlet and outlet were created so fresh river water would prevent stagnation, but, Harlan County Judge-Executive Joe Grieshop said the system has never worked effectively. The county is responsible for maintaining the project. Environmental 'diplomat' Leslie Cole retires; staffed Ky. commission since '85 Leslie Cole, who has been called "diplomat, researcher, administrator, fair to all sides, and passionate about the e |