Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006

Papers' accelerating circulation decline partly due to rural abandonment; smallest dailies, many of them rural, show best circulation performance

Some of what Editor & Publisher's Jennifer Saba calls "bloodcurdling circulation drops" at metropolitan newspapers are voluntary, writes Alan Mutter of Tapit Partners in his Confessions of a Newsosaur blog, which is subtitled "Musings and (occasional urgent warnings) of a veteran media executive, who fears our news-gathering companies are stumbling to extinction." (The chart below comes from his site.)

"Publishers increasingly are deciding to stop schlepping papers to thinly penetrated locations far from their core markets," Mutter writes." Beyond being an expensive indulgence, vanity circulation is little prized by most advertisers. It makes perfect sense to say bye-bye to the boonies."

Saba writes, "Newspaper companies are also refocusing their efforts on tighter geographic targets. Many big metros, like The Dallas Morning News, cut circulation outside their core area." E&P said daily circulation declined 2.8 percent in the last six months and Sunday circulation dropped 3.4 percent.

Generally, the larger the papers, the larger the declines. The best performance was in dailies of less than 25,000 circulation, many of them rural. Among the 419 papers in that category, the overall decline was 2.1 percent and one-fourth of them (105) reported higher circulation.

Newspapers are increasingly pointing to their total audience, including Web site visitors. The Newspaper Association of America, the dailies' trade group, reported that a record 58 million people, "more than one in three active Internet users, visited a newspaper Web site" during the period, Saba writes. "There’s no question that newspapers are making great strides in driving online readership, especially as online revenue is growing like gangbusters. What remains to be seen is if they get the credit."

CNHI buys six papers from Dow Jones, names Bill Ketter VP of news

Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., one of the largest owners of rural newspapers in the U.S., is buying six papers from Dow Jones & Co., which says it is trying to diversify from print. The papers are: the News-Times of Danbury, Conn., circulation 29,336; the Traverse City (Mich.) Record-Eagle, 28,235; the Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel, 25,305; The Daily Item of Sunbury, Pa., 24,226;the Press-Republican of Plattsburgh, N.Y., 20,386; and The Daily Star of Oneonta, N.Y., 17,114.

"Dow Jones' Local Media Group will continue to publish eight daily and 15 weekly newspapers and their community Internet sites in seven U.S. states with combined daily print circulation of 282,000, Sunday print circulation of 316,000 and online average daily unique visitors of 119,000," the company release said.

CNHI posted no release on the sale, but the purchase appears to continue the Birmingham-based firm's strategy of buying larger community dailies. Four of the new purchases will be among CNHI's top 10 in circulation, and the others will rank 14th and 21st among a total of 83 dailies. It has 73 weeklies.

Meanwhile, veteran journalist Bill Ketter is CNHI's new vice president of news, leaving his post as editor and vice president of news for CNHI's Eagle-Tribune Publishing Group of four dailies and four weeklies, based in North Andover, Mass. The Eagle-Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news in 2003, and Ketter served on the Pulitzer board a few years earlier.

"Ketter's experience includes that of reporter, editor and vice president with UPI. He is a former Boston Globe vice president [and] former chairman of the Boston University Journalism School," reports the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association in its latest eBulletin. "Ketter, who will remain in North Andover, is replacing Brad Dennison, who has accepted a position in the Chicago area. (Read more)

Ketter is "chairman of the New England Academy of Journalists, and a former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. . . . He has spoken on the value of a free press and American journalism in more than 25 countries," according to his profile on Boston University's Web site. He is also a director of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Rural areas take innovative approaches to overcoming education hurdles

"Students from remote, rural regions confront many obstacles in their pursuit of higher education — including difficulties just getting to classes and a lack of preparation for college-level work. Those challenges, while often similar for rural students throughout America, can play out in different ways depending on the region in which the students live," reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.

"Rural students in Appalachia, for instance, generally come from different racial and cultural backgrounds, and can have different problems and needs, from those of rural students in Montana. The economic conditions that influence students in rural Alaska are not the same as those in the Southwest." The publication's latest forum examines the conditions for rural students in those regions and states, as well as Arizona, through the words of education leaders.

"Poor students who live in remote areas face many disadvantages," writes Gordon Davies, director of the National Collaborative for Postsecondary Education Policy and former head of the postsecondary education councils in Kentucky and Virginia. "For starters, many jobs in rural areas have disappeared, sometimes overseas and sometimes because a natural resource has been depleted. The tobacco, timber, and textile industries, for example, no longer support the population of many counties in southern Virginia. Thus, the family earnings of poor rural students have fallen or stagnated while tuition at most colleges has continued to climb. Such students simply can't afford college, and financial-aid programs don't fill the gap."

Obstacles include transportation costs, teacher shortages, and a lack of communication, computation, and other academic skills necessary for college success. However, all of these regions are using innovative steps to overcome hurdles, and one example is Blackfeet Community College in Montana. "For example, we are working to provide new student housing within walking distance from the campus to ameliorate transportation needs," writes college President John E. Salois. "We have obtained several federal grants to purchase land and create the infrastructure for construction. We are exploring options like tax credits to help pay to build the housing and like wind energy to make it more affordable for tenants." (Read more)

As rural lands change hands, development threatens Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail provides escape for hikers and homeowners from Maine to Georgia, but some locals worry about the effects of housing developments and highway expansions on their scenery and the trail.

"From New England to the Deep South, the AT is threatened by subdivisions, road-building, power lines and other development under construction or consideration along the 2,175-mile footpath, according to the National Park Service and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the nonprofit group that manages the AT," writes John Cramer of The Roanoke Times. in the paper's latest example of offering readers a regional story of national importance.

The National Association of Home Builders and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., advocate of a free-market approach to environmental policy, counter that people should have the ability to live anywhere without loads of government rules that only complicate the issues of urban sprawl, pollution, traffic, home prices and energy costs, reports Cramer.

Some Virginians are signing conservation easements to get federal and state tax breaks in trade for limiting or prohibiting development on their land. The Appalachian Trail is an example of how landowners hold the future of rural property in their hands. (Read more)

Oops: For us, the most intriguing part of Cramer's story was this line: "Nationwide, 70 percent of rural lands are expected to change ownership in the next decade as aging family farmers face tougher markets, rising costs, their children leaving for the city and developers looking for retirement and vacation home sites for millions of baby boomers." Cramer did not give a source for that figure, but we looked around and found a story in the Oct. 23 issue of The News and Advance of nearby Lynchburg, which quotes Roger Holnback, executive director of the nonprofit Western Virginia Land Trust, saying “In the next decade, 70 percent of the rural lands in Virginia will change hands.” (Emphasis added.) Holnback told us that the estimate came from a 2001 Virginia Department of Agriculture report. (Read more)

Bush folks add endangered species at less than one-sixth Clinton's rate

A Bush appointee at the Department of the Interior is prone to rejecting staff scientists' recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants such as the white-tailed prairie dog and the Gunnison sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act, according to documents revealed by The Washington Post.

There is a federal inquiry underway into the role of Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks, and her decisions to reject reports with proposals to identify species as either threatened or endangered. "Overall, President Bush's appointees have added far fewer species to the protected list than did the administrations of either Bill Clinton or George H.W. Bush, according to the advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity," writes the Post's Juliet Eilperin.

The Bush administration has listed 56 species, compared to 512 species during Clinton's two terms and 234 during George H.W. Bush's one term. Government officials and outside scientists have accused the Bush administration of overriding or disregarding findings that go against its plans for global warming. Bush officials counter that the reason for fewer species is being listed is that there are several lawsuits over existing listings, and that the focus is on ensuring their recovery not adding new ones, reports Eilperin.

"Since the act's inception in 1973, the government has identified 1,337 domestic species as threatened or endangered, of which 1,311 remain on the list. At any given time the government is evaluating hundreds of candidate species: Officials and scientists review all the available scientific literature on a plant or animal before awarding it protection. The process can take several years, even though under law it should take no more than two years and three months," writes Eilperin. (Read more)

Program to cut global warming pays farmers for keeping land green

Farmers may profit by planting crops and letting them flourish as part of the Chicago Climate Exchange, the country's first and only legally binding greenhouse-gas reduction and trading system.

"Landowners who agree to maintain tracts of woodlands and grasslands are assigned 'carbon credits' by the exchange based on plants' ability through photosynthesis to pull carbon dioxide from the air and sequester it in their tissue. Those credits earn farmers income once exchange member corporations purchase them to offset their carbon dioxide emissions to meet voluntary reduction targets," reports Rick Callahan of The Associated Press.

The system's enrollment totals about 1,700 farms, many of which go through groups such as the Iowa Farm Bureau and the North Dakota Farmers Union that pool carbon credits for sale. The National Farmers Union, which which represents about 250,000 family farms and ranches, started an effort earlier this month to encourage farmers to enroll in the exchange, notes AP.

"The Chicago exchange was set up for American companies that want to voluntarily curb their greenhouse gas releases. Separately, several Northeastern states have formed an initiative to cut carbon dioxide emissions, and California is moving in the same direction. A coalition of 19 environmental groups eager for the federal government to set greenhouse gas caps - which the Bush administration opposes - issued an open letter in August urging states and municipalities not to join the Chicago exchange's trading system," reports Callahan. (Read more)

Iowa farmers get work done by using their hands instead of fossil fuels

Farming free of fossil fuels is creating a buzz in Iowa with people picking corn the old way -- by hand -- and with farmers using horses to perform work typically reserved for gas-guzzling machines.

Farmers are not ditching tractors altogether, but many are using combinations of small motorized equipment and horses -- some of which eat the corn while picking. This style of farming comes with drawbacks because "hauling manure with horses in the winter doesn't provide the same creature comforts of a modern cab tractor with heat and an air-ride seat," writes Matthew Wilde of The Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier.

However, what some seasoned farmers hope to do is show aspiring farmers that 1,000 acres and expensive equipment are not needed to survive in agriculture. The nation's agriculture industry is saddled with an aging population and many cite today's high cost of farming as one reason for the shortage of rookies. However, fossil fuel-free farmers accomplish two things -- "They're helping the environment by not using man made chemicals, saving energy and providing wholesome food for the community. And, they're making money doing it," reports Wilde. (Read more)

Monday, Oct. 30, 2006

'Wildlands-urban interface' home to most new homes, now big fires

A fire in the San Jacinto Mountains burned 63 structures and 63 square miles last week in California, in an example of how housing developments in rural America pose new concerns for firefighters.

As more people flock from the city to the country, the problem of fires caused by arson or other means continues to increase. The new rural homeowners are moving to "a zone known to experts and firefighters as the wildlands-urban interface -- the space where houses intermingle with wilderness, a space where millions of Americans long to live," writes John Pomfret of The Washington Post. "In the 1990s, . . . of the 13 million homes built in the United States, 9 million, or 69 percent, were constructed in these zones."

California's big fire is just the latest in its string of 7,757 wildfires this year, and that state contains the most homes in wildlands-urban interface zones and the most homes lost to wildfires. "The development boom in forests and chaparral and along riverbeds has led some experts to question whether society can afford to have firefighters risk their lives to protect this lifestyle and whether federal, state and local governments should not limit development," writes Pomfret.

That idea enrages some Americans who live by the philosophy that all land should be open for their taking. In California alone, thousands of homeowners have picked land in the woods, along earthquake lines and in flood plains. Up for debate is the role firefighters play in the frequency and intensity of wildfires.(Read more)

Rural residents fight suburb-like housing developments in Washington

In western Washington state, cluster housing, the practice of placing large houses close together on a small area of land, has drawn opposition from residents who want to keep the rural character of their community.

People Opposed to Rural Cluster Housing say they want to preserve the wildlife, natural beauty and rural lifestyle of Snohomish County, a mostly forested region which has begun to experience high growth. "We don't want to live in subdivisions, so please don't bring the subdivisions out to us," Deborah Biebel-Tinius of Snohomish told the Daily Herald in Everett, Wash.

“County policies require officials to monitor rural developments to make sure patterns of urban development don't emerge, with reports due annually. Snohomish County was sued in 1995 over its growth plans. The county later changed its policies to restrict rural housing to one house per five acres except when cluster developments are built,” writes Jeff Switzer of the Herald.

Since 1993 more houses have been allowed to be built on smaller tracts as long as a portion of the land is left undeveloped. Proponents say it preserves trees and creates more open space. However, there is now about one house per 2.8 acres in the county. Maxine Tuerk, co-sponsor of People Opposed to Rural Cluster Housing, said that it’s like an urban sprawl. The county expects about 51,000 people to move into its rural areas in the next 20 years. (Read more)

End of daylight saving time increases chances of deer-vehicle collisions

When daylight saving time concluded Sunday morning, the chances of deer-vehicle collisions increased.

Prior to Sunday morning, when people got off work, the sun still shined and deer stayed hidden away. Now, “as soon as the sun goes down, deer come out and that’s going to put them on the same roads as the people going home from work and that’s a collision waiting to happen. Our deer-related accidents really go up after October.” Lee County, Mississippi Sheriff Jim Johnson told reporter Danza Johnson of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo

Understanding deer patterns may prevent collisions, according to a biologist with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. “Deer move about two hours before sunrise and two hours after sunset,” Scott Edwards told Johnson. “During those four hours you’ll see more deer activity than any other time. Now sunset falls at 7 o’clock when most people are already home from work and settled in. When the sun starts setting at 5:30 p.m. after daylight-saving time, people will still be on their way home from work, and this puts them on the same roads with the deer." (Read more)

Thanks to Al's Morining Meeting from the Poynter Institute for leading us to this story.

More Christian groups in Appalachia oppose mountaintop removal

In Appalachia, some Christian groups are taking a stand against mountaintop-removal strip mining for coal, and are giving mountain tours to raise awareness among the public. "They are part of an awakening among religious people to environmental issues, said Paul Gorman, executive director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, an interreligious alliance. Increasingly, religious people across denominations are organizing around local issues, like preventing a landfill, preserving wetlands and changing mining," writes Neela Banerjee of The New York Times.

The Catholic Committee of Appalachia has lead hiking tours across southeastern Kentucky and southwest Virginia since 1994 and the Mennonite Central Committee Appalachia has begun this month, reports Banerjee. A new group, Christians for the Mountains, encourages religious people to take mountaintop removal as a spiritual issue and has distributed a DVD throughout churches. However, Appalachian residents may hesitate to oppose mountaintop removal because many work in the coal industry and are afraid of pressure from their employers. Recently, the Kentucky Council of Churches came out against mountaintop removal.

Coal-industry leaders say mountaintop removal is safer for miners and creates jobs. Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, told The Times that opponents of the practice face a dilemma, “because they’re expressing support for those who purport to protect nature, and, at the same time, that activism carries implications for the human side of the natural equation. Human welfare depends on the rational exploitation of nature.” (Read more)

Health insurer commits $5 million to economic program in rural Iowa

Rural economic development is getting a $5 million boost in Iowa thanks to a commitment from health insurer Wellmark Inc. to the state Farm Bureau's program called Renew Rural Iowa.

"Wellmark is the first outside investor in Renew Rural Iowa since Iowa Farm Bureau launched the program last month. Iowa Farm Bureau, a West Des Moines-based farm advocacy group, already has pledged $5 million of its own and is seeking an additional $10 million to $20 million in venture capital by year end," reports The Des Moines Register. (Read more)

The program supplies entrepreneurs with training, mentoring, and business guidance, and entrepreneurs must go through the program in order to gain some of the venture capital. Renew Rural Iowa is scheduling seminars across the state, and anyone seeking information should visit this Web site.

Bobbie Ann Mason sees the poison industry on the rise in Kentucky

When The New York Times.asked four writers around the country to write about developments in their local economies, rural, Kentucky-born writer Bobbie Ann Mason reported that her state is shifting from agriculture to weapons of mass destruction.

"In rural Kentucky, where the health of the land once meant plowing manure under the soil each spring, the future is not in cows and corn. We’re now poised to take on the burden of the world’s poisons," Mason writes, noting two hazardous-material sites and a proposal for a lab to fight bioterrorism.

The Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, a city of about 30,000 in Central Kentucky, has held a stockpile of about 523 tons of chemical weapons since World War II. The weapons contain materials such as sarin and mustard gas and there are possibilities of leaks. Kentucky will be getting a $2 billion test plant to attempt to dispose of the weapons, but it is a pilot project with uncertain results. A ceremony to mark start of constuction was held Saturday, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. (Read more)

Paducah (pop. 26,000) in Western Kentucky has a uranium-enrichment plant that has been disposing of its own radioactive materials but may decide to open a recycling plant for nuclear waste shipped in from worldwide, said Mason. The proposed plant would create up to 6,000 jobs for the areas but it poses health and safety concerns. Kentucky politicians have also proposed a $451 million lab to study possible biological weapons such as anthrax and the ebola virus. Mason colcludes, "Y’all come!" (Read more)

Halloween spending on the rise, big business in small Kentucky town

Halloween Express, based in Owenton, Ky., population 1,387, is the No. 2 Halloween store in the nation. It started in South Carolina but moved to Kentucky to collaborate with a factory producing Halloween goods. Curtis Sigretto's business is franchised to 135 stores in more than 30 states, generating between $40 million and $50 million a year. A typical store, although only open from early September to early November, might generate $350,000 in that span of time, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader.

"Consumer spending on Halloween is expected to rise significantly this year. In a report issued last month, the National Retail Federation estimated consumers will spend close to $5 billion, up from $3.3 billion last year, according to a survey it commissioned," writes Scott Sloan. "The big increase is attributed to more consumers expecting to celebrate the event, up to 63.8 percent from 52.5 percent last year. Still, the federation ranked Halloween as only the sixth-largest spending holiday behind the winter holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa), Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Easter and Father's Day, largely because gifts are not exchanged at Halloween." (Read more)

Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006

Poll in key districts, states shows rural voters moving to Democrats

Democratic candidates in closely contested House races now have a clear overall advantage among rural voters in the latest version of a bipartisan poll, after being tied with Republicans last month.

"Fifty-two per cent of the respondents indicate they'll vote for Democratic congressional candidates; 39 percent say they'll support Republicans," Howard Berkes of National Public Radio reports. Seven percent were undecided, 2 percent refused to answer and 1 percent said they would vote for a canddiate of another party. The error margin was plus or minus 5.7 percentage points.

The poll found Democrats more enthusiastic about supporting their candidates, and "rural voters more strongly committed to Republican ideals are unenthusiastic about voting Republican now." It also found a shift toward Democrats in Senate races in states with signiifcant rural populations, from +4 Republican to +4 Democratic, but those results remained within the error margin of 5.5 points for the Senate sample.

The poll was conducted for the Center for Rural Strategies, a Kentucky-based group that tries to focus public attention on rural issues. "In past elections, we’ve seen the numbers in rural areas break toward the Republicans at the end and now it’s breaking toward the Democrats,” CRS President Dee Davis told David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register. "He said a similar pattern was seen in the elections of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton," Yepsen added.

The poll was supervised and analyzed by Republican consultant Bill Greener and conducted by Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg. "Rural voters tend to be a core electorate for Republicans and they need their base voters to turn out and turn out big," Greenberg told Berkes. But Davis told Yepsen, “The rural vote is not a permanent fixture of the GOP. Events matter, and policies matter, and right now there’s a dissatisfaction with Congress.” (Read more)

A month of bad news from Iraq may have made much of the difference. "Sixty percent of the respondents supported a statement calling for return of American troops next year," Berkes reports. "Thirty-eight percent named the Iraq war as one of their top issues, an increase of 10 per cent in the last month." He offered one hope for Republicans: "Half of those surveyed didn't blame the nation's problems on their incumbent member of congress. And most of the districts surveyed have Republican incumbents." (Read more)

Districts surveyed included AZ-08, CA-11, CO-03, CO-04, CT-02, CT-05, FL-13, FL-16, IL-17, IN-09, IN-08, IN-02, IA-08, KY-02, KY-04, LA-03, MN-01, NV-02, NH-02, NH-01, NY-19, NY-20, NY-24, NY-25, NY-29, NC-11, OH-02, OH-06, OH-18, PA-06, MN-06, PA-10, SC-05, TX-17, TX-23, WV-01, WI-08, WA-02, WA-08, and the entire-state House districts of Vermont and Wyoming. States surveyed for Senate races included Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Dailies growing online revenue, but still not as fast as online readership

Daily newspapers reported 24 percent more online visits in the thrid quarter than a year ago, and their owners' quarterly earnings reports show that their online revenue is also growing fast. "The bad news is that online revenue doesn't seem to be keeping pace with online readership," writes Wendy Davis in the Just an Online Minute blog from MediaPost Communications.

David notes that online revenue accounts for 6 to 7 percent of total daily newspaper revenue, according to estimates by Merrill Lynch. "Even if the rapid growth continues for the next few years, we don't see online representing over 50 percent of newspaper ad revenues for at least a couple of decades, suggesting that industry profit could stay flat for the foreseeable future," Merrill Lynch said in a report cited by Davis. "Many newspaper stocks are pricing in flat to negative perpetual growth in free cash flow."

Davis also cites a report from the research company Outsell, which estimated that the top 10 news companies get only 5 percent of revenue from their online services. "Growth is heavily dependent on narrowing that gap between the percentage of audience online and how much company revenue is derived from online," the Outsell report said.

The key, Davis argues, is "newspapers' willingness to experiment. . . . But any experiments likely will have to occur at Internet speed -- much faster than newspapers are accustomed to. Consider the $1.65 billion deal between Google and YouTube reportedly came together in just one week." (Read more)

Dave Morgan of MediaPost's OnlineSpin blog writes that newspapers "know that their chance to dominate local online advertising as they have dominated local offline advertising is looking slimmer and slimmer. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are all lining up to take a piece of the $100+ billion local ad market as much of it shifts online."

Morgan has four recommendations for papers: Separate their online and print divisions to attract and keep online talent, reinvent their pages for the Web, embrace user-generated content, and create local ad networks "to aggregate every site and every page and every blog with any local connection ... to create the kind of massive scale that advertisers want. This is already done on the national level." (Read more)

Friday, Oct. 27, 2006

Gay marriage, a big issue in rural areas, resurfaces as elections loom

The hot-button issue of gay marriage, so helpful to Republican candidates in 2004, especially in rural areas, is back. Yesterday, "President Bush and Republicans across the country tried to use a court ruling in New Jersey to rally dispirited conservatives to the polls," reports Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times. "This will play among those rural, social-conservative voters, Rich Lowry of National Review said tonight on PBS's NewsHour.

The New Jersey Supreme Court's ruling that legislators should give gays "the same legal rights and financial benefits as heterosexual couples had immediate ripple effects, especially in Senate races in some of the eight states where voters are considering constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage," Stolberg reports -- especially Tennessee and Virginia, where Democratic wins could give the party control of the Senate.

Virginia Sen. George Allen showed up yesterday at a Roanoke rally for the amendment, and used it as he campaigned elsewhere, reports Mason Adams of The Roanoke Times. (Read more) Also along the Interstate 81 corridor, Democratic challenger James Webb, rebutted an Allen radio ad "that suggests he supports gay marriage," the Times reports. Webb opposes the amendment, "agreeing with other prominent Democrats that the proposal reaches beyond marriage to affect other legal relationships between unmarried individuals," specifically civil unions, reports the Roanoke paper's Michael Sluss. (Read more)

Republican strategist Charles Black told the New York Times, “You’ve got about 20 House races and probably half a dozen Senate races that are either dead even or very, very close. So if it motivates voters in one or two to go vote, it could make a difference.” Democrats said that the debate would not, as reporter Stolberg put it, "dramatically alter the national conversation in an election that has been dominated by the war in Iraq and corruption and scandal in Washington. But across the country, Republicans quickly embraced the New Jersey ruling as a reason for voters to send them to Capitol Hill." (Read more)

Rural Danish paper tries to build bridges between natives, refugees

In rural Denmark, the newspaper Nordjyske Stiftstidende is trying to integrate Muslim refugees with native Danes with a series called “Kontakt.” Reporter Lars Hofmeister came up with the idea after another Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, raised international controversy last September by publishing editorial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Inger Lise Kobber-Jønsson, assistant managing editor of Nordjyske Stiftstidende, told the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues that the series is designed partly to help dispel negative images of Denmark and Danes that the cartoons may have created.

To foster understanding between “new Danes” and “old Danes,” the paper ran a story last month inviting a native family to have dinner with a family of Afghan immigrants. The Afghans were refugees from the country's civil war before getting permanent-residence permits in Denmark. Hofmeister's story describes their dinner with a family in the town of Sæby (population 18,000), the food they ate, their conversations and how the children played. It occupied a two-page spread with six color photographs. The story talked little of politics, and focused on the interactions between the families and their new friendship.

Nordjyske Stiftstidende is a daily with a circulation of about 70,000, with six local editions. We think this series is an excellent example of how rural newspapers anywhere can become engaged in their communities, to interact with the public and build bridges across cultures. To read the article, click here. (Article in Danish, and for subscribers only; for a translation, contact the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, address below.) To visit Nordjyske Stiftstidende’s home page, click here.

Health-insurance database compares access, affordability by state

Access to affordable health insurance is an issue in many rural areas, partly because of differences in state regulation. How does your state match up with those near it and like it? You can find out with the State Health Insurance Index, compiled by the Council for Affordable Health Insurance.

"The index considers six important measures of state health insurance viability, including the regulatory environment, the number of health-insurance mandates, the uninsured, access to a high-risk pool and the average premiums in the individual and small group markets," CAHI said in a news release.

CAHI defines itself as "a research and advocacy association of insurance carriers active in the individual, small group, HSA and senior markets" that lobbies for "market-oriented solutions to the problems in America's health care system. It includes insurance companies, small businesses, providers, nonprofit associations, actuaries, insurance brokers and individuals." (Read more)

New law requires New York public records to be available via e-mail

“All state and local government agencies with Internet capabilities in New York are now required to accept public records requests and transmit responsive documents by e-mail, due to a change in the state's Freedom of Information Law that became effective Tuesday,” writes Loren Cochran of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

New York is the only state that requires public agencies to make fulfill open-records requests by e-mail, reports Cochran. To us, this sounds like an example that other states should follow.

Robert Freeman, executive director of New York's Committee on Open Government, believes the law will benefit both the government and people seeking information. He said e-mail will save agencies time and money through sending fewer paper copies and requesters won’t have to pay to get records. “Freeman said the new law also streamlines the process by providing requesters with a standardized public records request form and requiring uniform agency responses, moves he anticipates will improve responses from government,” writes Cochran. (Read more)

Underwriters Laboratories safety sticker still not available for E85 pumps

The spread of 85 percent ethanol fuel, E85, could be slowed because the leading product-safety testing group has "no timetable for approving E85 systems for filling stations," reports the Detroit Free Press.

"The lack of the UL seal for fuel pumps carrying E85 means most of the roughly 1,000 stations that carry ethanol likely violate fire codes, and stations that want to install E85 systems in most states would need waivers from local or state fire marshals," writes Justin Hyde of the paper's Washington Bureau.

Two E85 stations near Columbus, Ohio were closed because of a lack of a UL listing, "no safety problems with E85 stations ever have been reported," Hyde reports. "UL seals show up on thousands of products from toasters to turbines, and a UL listing is a requirement for filling stations under most fire codes. But on Oct. 5, UL announced it was suspending its listings for any fuel system that handled E85."

UL told Hyde it had certified some parts of a fueling system for alternative fuels, but had not focused on E85 "until May, when a supplier applied for a UL listing for an entire dispenser -- the pump and nozzle," Hyde explains. "As UL began to examine the system, it realized it needed more information about how ethanol reacted over long periods of time with parts made from certain metals." (Read more)

Watchdog group launching tool to monitor hiring of political spouses

The Sunlight Foundation, a watchdog group for open government, is launching a project that will provide information on U.S. House members whose spouses are paid by their campaigns. A searchable database will show which members have spouses on the payroll, what they are paid, and what work they do.

"Some members of Congress, by hiring their spouses, in effect use their campaign treasury to supplement their own bank accounts," writes Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation. "The practice is legal, disclosed in obscure corners of campaign finance reports, and rarely mentioned by those who cover campaigns. And now citizen journalists can investigate it!"

The Sunlight Foundation plans to add a Senate spouse project, another for children of politicians working for political campaigns, as well as a project to disclose relatives in political action committees and those registered to lobby Congress. To read the Sunlight Foundation’s release, click here.

Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006

Expert says community trumps technology for rural business opportunity

Collaboration of communities is more important to rural economic growth than access to technology, a leading rural sociologist said this week at the national rural telecommunications conference.

“It’s not about the technology. It’s about people, the social nature of the community and whether its organizations are prepared to do what needs to be done,” Kenneth E. Pigg of the University of Missouri at Columbia said Monday at the 10th annual RuralTeleCon in Little Rock, Ark.

Pigg said rural areas must come together as a whole to identify and develop their economic strengths. He added that until rural America learns to promote its distinct features and qualities, economic development opportunities will be few and far between, reports Bill W. Hornaday of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Hornaday writes, "In a reversal of recent trends that sent millions of American jobs abroad, unstable economies and political unrest have many companies looking to rural America for new manufacturing plants and satellite facilities, said Greg Smith, chairman of the Rural Telecommunication Congress, which sponsors the annual conference. Some high-tech businesses already are making the move, citing lower cost of living, a 'reduced hassle' lifestyle, improved labor force, recreation opportunities, and lower taxes and business costs, he said." (Read more)

Rural industries' water consumption may threaten ethanol's expansion

Excessive water consumption could limit the spreading use of ethanol as a fuel, according to a paper by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Water is evaporated and expelled as waste in a cooling process used to make ethanol, and the typical plant needs about 500 gallons of water per minute.

"Most ethanol plants in the U.S. are based in the Midwest because of their proximity to corn, their primary feedstock," said an IATP release. "Parts of the Midwest are experiencing significant water supply concerns, particularly in the western portion of the region. Rural industries, mainly livestock production, consume considerable water. Crop irrigation, while not widespread east of the Missouri River, is necessary in Great Plains states." (Read the release)

Dennis Keeney and Mark Muller, the authors of the paper, recommended strengthening regulation of ethanol plant sites, cooperative water recycling with wastewater and livestock facilities, placing more value on water and making water consumption records available to the public. (Read more)

Gangs set up shop in rural towns, straining small police departments

Gunslingers once roamed the streets in Dodge City, Kan., and now gangsters cause the violence. It's just one example of how guns and methamphetamine are becoming a growing problem in rural America, creating concerns for residents and straining the abilities of smaller police and sheriff's departments.

A 2004 Youth Gang Survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice reported that 14 percent of rural counties dealt with active youth gangs. The gangs were more transitory when they first emerged in the 1980s, and now many are planting permanent seeds of violence in rural areas, reports The Associated Press. Many rural gangs are becoming more locally grown than urban gangs, said Arlen Egley Jr., senior research associate at the National Youth Gang Center in Tallahassee, Fla. (Read more)

Dodge City Police Chief John Ball estimates the town of 25,000 houses 300-plus gang members, most of whom are Hispanic. "Dodge City is one of the few western Kansas towns that has been growing, largely due to the influx of Latinos drawn to the meatpacking industry in southwest Kansas," reports AP.

Health, schools, immigration covered in new U.S. Census fact book

The U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 State and Metropolitan Area Data Book features more than 1,500 data items for metropolitan areas, counties, states and the nation. Topics include agriculture, health, finance, natural resources, immigration and education. Information comes from federal agencies, health, trade and educational associations, philanthropic foundations and private sources.

The book can be accessed for free online at this Web site. Printed copies cost $47.00. To see more information about the book, click here.

Texas population forecast shows many drops in rural, big jump in urban

Rural-to-urban migration occurred throughout the U.S. during the 20th century, but the number of people moving from small towns to big cities might grow substantially in Texas, according to estimates released this week by the Texas State Data Center.

"What it probably calls attention to in a broad sense is that there's really some rural development issues that are pretty clear for West Texas, or they'll have some severe population loss in some areas," said State Demographer Steve Murdock of the University of Texas at San Antonio. "Where rural Texas would decline, the Houston area would burst at the seams. Steady growth at the pace set from 2000 to 2004 would put Harris County at 6.6 million residents by 2040, nearly doubling since the 2000 census," writes Mark Babineck of The Houston Chronicle.

However, if current population trends hold true, 116 of Texas' 254 counties stand to keep losing people. "The 2000-2004 projections thus show an increased concentration of growth in suburban areas and an increasing number of counties in West Texas and the Panhandle that are showing declines," according to a Murdock's report. The state's population is projected to double to 43.6 million by 2040, with the majority becoming Hispanic in the mid-2020s, notes Babineck. (Read more)

Smoke-free ordinance produces better indoor air for E. Kentucky county

Indoor air quality significantly improved in the first three months after Letcher County in Eastern Kentucky implemented a smoke-free ordinance, according to a University of Kentucky study released last week.

Air samples taken from nine public places in Letcher County revealed a 75 percent drop in indoor air pollution during the past three months, reports Sally Barto of The Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg. "Prior to the law, there were 67 micrograms per cubic meter, the particles that are measured in the air. It was 67 prior to the law and it got down to 17," said Ellen Napier, community liaison for University of Kentucky's Center for Rural Health and staff associate of the Kentucky Center for Smoke-Free Policy.

The center conducted the study with UK's colleges of nursing and public health. "Overall, the findings from the study demonstrate that this smoke-free ordinance is working," Napier told Barto. "The consumers and the workers in the compliant venues have better air quality. Letcher County has made a stride towards becoming 100 percent smoke free." Eagle is not online; click here to read a scanned copy of the article.

Clear Channel family considers selling nation's largest radio empire

"The Mays Family, which built Clear Channel Communications into the country’s largest network of radio stations through decades of acquisitions, is in negotiations to be taken private by a consortium of investors for more than $18.5 billion, people involved in the talks said yesterday," report Ken Belson and Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times.

The investors include Providence Equity Partners, the Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company. Clear Channel issued a statement yesterday saying that it was “evaluating various strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value.” The company is seeking more potential buyers, which could include any number of big media companies, the Times reports.

Clear Channel’s shares have declined in the last five years, as many radio listeners have turned to iPods, Web sites, e-mail messages and satellite radio. "More than nine out of 10 Americans still listen to traditional radio stations, but the amount of time people tune in has slid 14 percent over the last decade, according to Arbitron ratings," write Belson and Sorkin.

The company's rise to empirehood hit high gear after the Federal Communications Commission loosened rules on radio-station ownership in 1992. The company owns about 1,150 radio stations and has a big outdoor-advertising portfolio. "As Clear Channel has grown, it has come under attack for homogenizing radio entertainment by standardizing playlists, playing too many commercials and not running enough local news. This in part spurred the growth of satellite-based subscription services like XM Radio," the Times notes. (Read more)

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006

Rural schools’ spending on transportation leaves less for instruction

Rural school districts again encountered higher transportation costs than urban ones in 2003-2004, which meant less money went toward instruction, according to an analysis of data on 7,856 rural districts from the National Center for Education Statistics.

"For every dollar rural districts spend on transportation, they are able to spend just $11.71 on instruction. By contrast, non-rural districts are able to spend $15.43 on instruction for every dollar they spend on transportation," reports The Rural School and Community Trust in its latest edition of Rural Policy Matters. "The disparity reflects (1) the higher cost of transportation in rural school districts due to larger geographic enrollment areas and more challenging travel conditions than non-rural districts; and (2) the generally lower level of revenue available to rural school districts."

Since such a disparity exists, rural districts are struggling with fewer resources overall and constantly diverting funds away from the classroom. Several states are sponsoring policies to consolidate smaller schools and districts, which The Trust says will make the problem worse. (Read more)

Added wind power to boost nation's electricity supply, provide security

A record addition of 2,750 megawatts of wind-power capacity by year's end will boost the nation's amount of available electricity and provide added security for the future, according to an American Wind Energy Association press release.

One megawatt of wind power produces enough electricity on a typical day to serve 250 to 300 homes, and industry officials hail wind energy as a safe, domestic form of unlimited power. AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher is calling for the extension of a tax credit for wind-energy production that expires in December 2007, arguing that the credit is key to the ongoing wind energy push.

The AWEA is also pushing the U.S. Department of Energy to take steps to unlock more of the wind resources across rural America. “Every megawatt-hour of domestic, inexhaustible wind energy from our heartland is a megawatt-hour that doesn’t burn fuel and that strengthens our energy security, protects our environment, and creates good jobs," said Swisher. (Read the release)

Most states have wind-energy projects. The major exception is the Southeast, though the Tennessee Valley Authority has an installation on Buffalo Mountain, part of the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. For a state-by-state listing of active and proposed projects, click here.

Democrat takeover of House or Senate might boost net-neutrality efforts

Proponents of network neutrality see the prospect of Democrats reclaiming the U.S. Senate or House as a potential boost in the fight to keep telecommunications companies from playing favorites with how much they charge Internet content creators.

"The issue pits those companies -- including AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. -- against a well-organized grass roots campaign that is joined by some of the nation's biggest Internet success stories, such as Google and eBay. Net neutrality advocates say the 'Internet's First Amendment' is at stake. They argue that if those who run the network are allowed to discriminate against Web traffic based on which sites pay them the most, it will strangle the Internet's freewheeling, democratic nature," reports The Associated Press.

Democrats have traditionally voiced more support for net neutrality than Republicans, which is cause for advocates to hope for a takeover in the House. "On the Senate side, while a Democratic takeover is less likely, a Democratic pickup of one or two seats may still be significant," notes AP. "Regardless of the election's outcome, network neutrality legislation would still have to be signed by President Bush -- something that both sides acknowledge is unlikely to happen." (Read more)

Rural district could tip the balance in Tennessee and control of Senate

Most analysts agree that control of the U.S. Senate could be decided by two or three races, including the one in Tennessee between Republican Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker and Democratic U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., who would be the first African American senator from the South since Reconstruction. And the pivot point in Tennessee -- the place that has made Ford competitive and could bring him victory -- is the rural 4th Congressional District that runs through the hilly middle of the state and is only 4.5 percent black.

"Ford has tethered himself to Rep. Lincoln Davis, a popular two-term Democrat from a rural, white central Tennessee district and the chairman of Ford's campaign," reports Shailagh Murray of The Washington Post. "Davis said he polled his district in July and found Ford trailing 49 percent to 35 percent. . . . New numbers came back a few weeks ago showing Ford ahead 49 percent to 39 percent." Davis, of Pall Mall, told the Post, "If he wins my district, he's the next senator from Tennessee."

Murray's dateline is Coalmont, "a struggling mountain town," actually on the rugged Cumberland Plateau, which covers most of Davis's district. (Click here for a map.) She reports that Corker "often appears to be tiptoeing through a rhetorical minefield, eager to discredit his Democratic opponent with the sharpest weapons he can find but wary about accusations of playing racial politics." Corker said in an interview, "Our life experiences could not be more different. For him, politics is a way of life." Does the race factor influence his campaign decisions? "I understand the point of your question," Corker replied, "then he shook his head and looked away," Murray writes. (Read more)

California attorney general restricts release of criminal information

Reporters covering crime in California will have more difficulty getting information about criminal defendants, such as records on prior offenses and parole or probation status.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer issued an opinion Sept. 20 that says giving out that information violates defendents' privacy rights, and he advised prosecutors not to release lists of cases where witnesses have testified or names of defendents charged with a specific kind of crime over several years, The Associated Press reports today. The opinion follows a California Supreme Court ruling that restricted disclosure of police disciplinary records.

Thomas W. Nexton, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, argued that the public's interest outweighs the privacy issue. "A typical situation is you've got a person who is arrested and accused of a violent crime," he said. "The public wants to know who is this person. Part of who that person is, is what that person has or has not done in the past. The public wants and needs to know just who they're dealing with." (Read more)

Virginia tobacco farmers attempt to tap burley market for income boost

Some tobacco farmers in southern Virginia are switching from flue-cured leaf to burley to combat rising fuel costs and boost income, now that their federal quotas have been bought out and price supports abolished.

"Burley tobacco is a slightly different plant variety that is harvested once a year and hung out to dry in large, drafty barns for up to four months. Under the federal quota program, burley tobacco was grown only in certain geographic areas, such as in far southwest Virginia, but those boundaries were lifted during the 2004 buyout, leaving behind an untapped market for tobacco growers in other parts of Virginia. Seeing a new opportunity emerge for competitive tobacco markets, a handful of Southside tobacco farmers are now are sinking thousands of dollars into building barns for curing burley tobacco and reshuffling the regional boundaries of Virginia's tobacco industry," writes Christina Rogers of The Roanoke Times.

The 2004 abolition of quotas and price supports was coupled with a $10 billion buyout for growers, but the change forced growers to adapt to a freer market, controlled by cigarette companies that contract with farmers for most production. "Because most burley tobacco farms were small, family-owned operations, the elimination of this federal program was an excuse for some tobacco growers to either retire or quit the business, said Danny Peek, a Virginia Cooperative Extension agent and regional burley tobacco specialist for Southwest Virginia," writes Rogers. (Read more)

Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2006

Rural states failed to boost test scores for poor, minorities, study says

Only six states can claim moderate success at boosting reading, math or science scores for poor or minority students during the last 15 years and many rural states are lagging in efforts, according to a new study from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, an education, research and advocacy organization.

The six states with moderate success include California, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, New York, and Texas. "Many state officials have claimed credit for gains in student achievement," said Chester E. Finn, Jr., the Foundation's president, in a press release. "But this study casts doubt on many such claims. In reality, no state has made the kind of progress that's required to close America's vexing achievement gaps and help all children prepare for life in the 21st Century." (Read the release)

Iowa is called the "land of corn and complacency" in the report. "Iowa officials argue that the report only looks at certain factors, such as charter schools and statewide standards, instead of a more complete picture. Other indicators of improvement, they say, include strides in preschool, teacher quality and cultural competency training for educators so they can better reach students in need. The Fordham report is based on data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which has higher standards than the locally based Iowa Tests of Basic Skills in identifying whether students are proficient in subject matter," writes Megan Hawkins of The Des Moines Register. (Read more)

Another predominantly rural state showing little improvement is West Virginia. “West Virginia clearly has huge challenges, and obviously the challenge of rural poverty is considerable,” said Michael J. Petrilli, Fordham’s vice president for national programs and policy, in an Associated Press story. “But the state could be doing much, much more including things that don’t cost a lot of money. Setting clear and rigorous academic standards is the first and most important step." (Read more)

AP reports on Alabama's part in the study, which was titled "Rumbling, Bumbling and Stumbling Toward the Goal Line." The study includes references to legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and suggests the state needs a leader like him. (Read more)

The report, titled "How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children?" scored states in three categories: student achievement for low-income, African-American, and Hispanic students; achievement trends for those groups during the last 10-15 years; and track records in implementing education reforms. For the entire report, including a map with links to each state, click here.

High-stakes tests in schools come under fire from candidates, parents

Here's a national story that could lead to a local story almost anywhere: What do local parents and others who care about schools think about the high-stakes testing systems mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act and some states?

In a story from Lauderhill, Fla., The Washington Post reports that the backlash against state and federal tests is growing and becoming a political force. "The role of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, has become central to the race to succeed Gov. Jeb Bush (R), with polls showing a growing discontent over the exams, which he has championed and which are used to determine many aspects of the school system, including teacher pay, budgets and who flunks third grade," writes Peter Whoriskey.

Republican candidate Charlie Crist wants to continue the testing regime, but Democrat candidate Jim Davis condemns the exams for turning schools into pressure cookers. "This election season may be the first in which the growing use of high-stakes school testing, embodied in the No Child Left Behind legislation, has reached this level of political prominence. A similar exam revolt has become a key issue in the race for governor in Texas, another state in the vanguard of the testing movement, and the issue has roiled the Ohio gubernatorial contest as well," reports Whoriskey.

Testing advocates claim that pressure produces significant improvements in student performance, and states such as Florida and Texas are showing positive results. However, teachers unions and some parents groups argue that the tests transform education into routine drills, place more stress on elementary students, and that reported performance improvements are often short-lived, notes Whoriskey. (Read more)

Two weeks to go: It's time to check on voter guides, similar material

"Election Day is near, and religious organizations are busy distributing voter guides to inform the faithful about issues and candidates," notes ReligionLink.org, produced weekly by the educational arm of the Religion Newswriters Association.

"The Internal Revenue Service is closely monitoring politicking by churches and when high-profile public policy issues are entwined with religious values. This year, religious groups with more liberal political orientations are producing guides, which have long been used by conservative Christians. And all groups are benefiting from the Internet, where guides are posted for downloading by groups and individuals."

Some voter guides are evenhanded, but others advance a political agenda. The latter event may violate a federal law that prohibits tax-exempt group from supporting a particular candidate or party. "Experts say most groups seem to have learned from past mistakes, however, and now produce carefully crafted guides that communicate their message without crossing legal boundaries," ReligionLink.org reports. However, that does not mean such guides are not biased, and if you're a journalist who knows of biased guides or similar material being widely distributed in your area, we think you have an obligation to set the facts straight.

For a ReligionLink reporter's guide to voter guides, click here.

Montana Senate race illustrates Democrats' growing appeal in rural West

Democrat Jon Tester, the favorite in the Senate race in Montana, has a lot going for him. His Republican opponent, Sen. Conrad Burns, "is one of the least popular U.S. senators," reports The Weekly Standard. "Burns has been unable to label Tester, a farmer, as an out-of-touch liberal. Instead, Tester, like fellow Senate challengers Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Jim Webb in Virginia, is an antiwar populist who talks about economic inequality and the damage done to America by the president's foreign policy."

Tester's candidacy may be something more, writes the conservative Standard's Matthew Continetti. "The strength of his candidacy is one more sign that the Democratic Party is growing in the West. The Interior West -- which includes Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming -- is slowly embracing Democratic politicians and Democratic policies. And the roster of Western Democratic pols is impressive. In Arizona, there is Gov. Janet Napolitano, who is cruising to reelection. In Colorado, there is Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar and his brother John, who represents the state's 3rd Congressional District. In Montana, in addition to Tester, there is Gov. Brian Schweitzer. In New Mexico, there is Gov. Bill Richardson, a potential 2008 Democratic presidential candidate and the current chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. And in Wyoming, there is Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who is also likely to be reelected. . . . In Colorado, Democrat Bill Ritter is leading Republican congressman Bob Beauprez in the race to succeed Republican Gov. Bill Owens."

And in Idaho, there is a competitive race for an open House seat, "perhaps, the political equivalent of hell freezing over in the interior West," writes Blaine Harden of The Washington Post. For that story, click here. Kirk Johnson of The New York Times reports, "Of the seven states with the fastest-growing proportion of independent or third-party voters from 2000 to 2004, four are clustered in the Southwest — Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico, according to Election Data Services, a nonpartisan consulting company that tracks election information." (Arizona, Johnson's focus, ranked first, followed by New Hampshire, Florida and Maryland.) For the Times story, click here.

Democratic blogger Markos Moulitsas of The Daily Kos "believes Tester and other Western Democrats represent the beginning of a new political animal -- what he calls the Libertarian Democrat," Continetti writes. "Traditional libertarians err in seeing the government as the greatest threat to individual freedom. Corporations also threaten personal liberty. ... A Libertarian Democrat uses government power to limit the freedom-inhibiting tendencies of global capitalism while also guarding against abuses of government power."

Tester illustrates how successful politicians combine big ideas with a confident self-image and a gift of gab. During a discussion with doctors about malpractice lawsuits, "Someone asked Tester what should be done. He clearly had no idea what to say, so he opened the floor to suggestions," Continetti reports. "After a little more discussion he asked, 'So what's the solution?'" When a doctor replied, "You tell us," Tester said, "You guys are in the field. I know how to grease a combine, okay?" "Everyone laughed and smiled," Continetti writes, "but Tester's smile was the widest of them all." (Read more)

Former FCC chief wants broadband revolution, especially in rural U.S.

As Congress and lobbying interests continue to spend time debating net neutrality -- the issue of equal pricing for content creators -- a former Federal Communications Commission chairman says the more important Internet issue is broadband access for rural America.

"Any serious discussion of the future of the Internet should start with a basic fact: broadband is transforming every facet of communications, from entertainment and telephone services to delivery of vital services like health care. But this also means that the digital divide, once defined as the chasm separating those who had access to narrowband dial-up Internet and those who didn’t, has become a broadband digital divide," opines William E. Kennard of The New York Times.

"The nation should have a full-scale policy debate about the direction of the broadband Internet, especially about how to make sure that all Americans get access to broadband connections. Unfortunately, the current debate in Washington is over 'net neutrality' — that is, should network providers be able to charge some companies special fees for faster bandwidth," continues Kennard.

"As chairman of the FCC, I put into place many policies to bridge the narrowband digital divide. The broadband revolution poses similar challenges for policymakers," writes Kennard. "Studies by the federal government conclude that our rural and low-income areas trail urban and high-income areas in the rate of broadband use. Indeed, this year the Government Accountability Office found that 42 percent of households have either no computer or a computer with no Internet connection."

Kennard concludes, "To ensure that broadband reaches into rural, low income and other underserved communities, Congress should reform the Universal Service Fund, the federal subsidy paid to companies that provide telephone service to rural areas. For decades, the fund has been financed by a federal fee or surcharge that consumers pay on interstate phone calls. But the fund in its current form is not an effective way to support expanded broadband access. It is not fair to expect telephone consumers to bear the sole burden of the subsidy, and the decline in revenue from traditional long-distance calling is shrinking the base for contributions to the fund. We must find a new source of revenue for the fund that does not exclusively tax users of the phone network." (Read more)

Wal-Mart to slow U.S. store expansion, focus primarily on urban areas

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has about half its stores in rural areas, announced plans Monday to slow its U.S. expansion in an effort to boost returns on investments, which means delays in opening new stores close to existing ones and plans to build smaller and cheaper locations.

Retail analyst Richard Hastings said the move is a sign that Wal-Mart wants to focus more on major urban areas. "They've run out of the kinds of rural and suburban inexpensive lease locations that they enjoyed for so many years," Hastings said. Out of the more than 600 news stores slated for next year, about half are destined for spots outside the U.S., reports the Reuters news service.

"Despite tighter cost controls, the retailer said it was pressing on with efforts to remodel some 1,800 stores, or about half the U.S. chain, but acknowledged that the store disruption was hurting sales in the short term," notes Reuters. (Read more)

Monday, Oct. 23, 2006

PBS series tackles broadband, digital-divide issues that affect rural U.S.

The latest episode of the "Moyers on America" series on PBS, Friday night, covered several media issues that affect rural residents, including the digital divide, net neutrality, big media and communities working together for broadband Internet. The episode was titled "The Net At Risk" but its content was much broader, and it remains available online.

On net neutrality, Bill Moyers' show reported about the Federal Communications Commission allowing differential pricing for Internet content creators, which critics say would make the Internet a "toll road." The segment on digital divide talked about the lack of rural access to broadband as just one part of America's declining status in the global arena of Internet access. The big-media segment was about the decline in the number of companies owning a controlling interest in America's media, from 50 in 1984 to six today.

The segment on community connections covers one of the most contentious technology issues in rural America -- whether communities should take a lead role in providing broadband Internet access. "There are hundreds of community internet and municipal broadband projects underway or in the planning stages in the U.S. But there are also 14 states that either prohibit cities and towns from building their own networks or have passed laws that make it more difficult," according to the "Moyers on America" Web site.

With the series, the program began "Citizens Class," which its Web site calls "an extensive, interactive curriculum designed to encourage and facilitate public discourse on the issues raised in the series. The workshop features multimedia discussions, reference materials on the key perspectives presented in the program, and questions for further reflection-all designed to stimulate deep and thoughtful community dialogue," according to the show's Web site, which includes information about each of the four segments.

Dailies keep cutting rural circulation; Grit, still alive, seeks ex-urbanites

Metropolitan daily newspapers continue to reduce their coverage and circulation in rural areas, and the trend may be accelerating because of financial pressures. Several are expected to post declining circulation figures for the last three months, and at least one company blames the loss on cutbacks in serving rural areas.

"In a press release for 3Q results, Belo Corp. reported The Dallas Morning News showed steep declines for the six-month period ending September 2006. Daily circulation dropped 13 percent while Sunday slipped 12%. The company attributes the losses to a cut in statewide circulation and in third-party advertiser sponsored copies," writes Jennifer Saba of Editor & Publisher. In some areas of rural Texas, the newspaper abruptly dropped service to the residents. (Read more)

Meanwhile, the Reuters