Economic
Development
This page
provides links to assist in reporting on economic development. Please click here to access older blog items that may be of interest to those reporting on economic development. The blog items are
divided into two categories: general economic
development and broadband.
Economic development
issues in the this guide include, but are not limited to, municipal
broadband, urban sprawl, entrepreneurship, business reports,
state economics, and the job market.
TOPIC: Small daily takes a frank look at a troubled local bank
For most of the time since the banking crisis hit, more than a year ago, the Institute has encouraged community newspapers to report on the health of their community banks, using easily available public information gathered by federal regulators and public-interest organizations. We have no idea how good the coverage has been nationwide, but we think it would be hard to beat what we've seen in The State Journal of Frankfort, Ky. To read about it, click here.
COVERING BUSINESS
IN SMALL MARKETS
Ethics of Business
News, Here's a link
to a column written by Jim Pumarlo, a newspaper consultant with
Community Newsroom Success Strategies in Red Wing, Minn.
Story ideas and resources for covering your local economy, Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute presents some economic resources journalists can use to mine data: http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/als-morning-meeting/161224/story-ideas-and-resources-for-covering-your-local-economy/
RESEARCHING BUSINESSES
Library of Congress
indexes, bibliographies
and guides to business research, both general and specific industries:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/index1.html
Bureau of Economic
Analysis
BEA produces economic accounts statistics that enable government
and business decision-makers, researchers, and the American
public to follow and understand the performance of the Nation's
economy: www.bea.gov
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AND ENTERPRISE
Association for
Enterprise Opportunity,
www.microenterpriseworks.org
202-650-5580 AEO is the national association of organizations committed
to microenterprise development.
Boomtown USA,
http://boomtownusa.blogspot.com,
is a Web log by Jack Schultz of Agracel Inc.,
of Effingham, Ill., who posts comments as he travels the country
helping rural communites recruit high-tech and manufacturing
jobs. Schultz has coined (and trademarked) a term for "propsering
rural towns with a tie to agriculture." They're "agurbs."
Center for Rural
Entrepreneurship, www.energizingentrepreneurs.org 402-323-7336 Donald Macke don@e2mail.org
North Carolina: 919-932-7762 Deborah Markley deb@e2mail.org
The Center supports rural entrepreneurship development through
research and outreach.
Corporation
for Enterprise Development, http://www.cfed.org
national- 202-408-9788 western- 415-495-2333 south- 919-688-6444 CFED works with communities to help them envision, define and
build their own economic strategies, while preserving cultural
values and respecting natural resources.
Mountain
Association for Community Economic Development, www.maced.org Berea,
Ky. 859-986-2373 Justin Maxson x217 jmaxson@maced.org
MACED works to create economic alternatives in Eastern Kentucky
and Central Appalachia, and says, “We invest in good ideas
and help others move their good ideas forward.”
REGIONAL RURAL
DEVELOPMENT CENTERS
These centers coordinate
rural-development research and education throughout the U.S.
Each center links the research and extension capacity of regional
land-grant universities with local decision-makers to address
a wide range of rural development issues, so they can be important
connections to story ideas, sources and reliable economic information.
North Central
Regional Center for Rural Development, Michigan State Univ.,
515-294-8321 http://ncrcrd.msu.edu/
Rosa Soliz, communications and logistics associate soliz@anr.msu.edu The center says
it “provides leadership in rural development regionally
and nationally by identifying, developing and supporting programs
on the vanguard of emerging issues.”
Northeast Regional
Center for Rural Development, Penn State University,
814-863-4656 http://nercrd.psu.edu/
(Send
e-mail to nercrd@psu.edu)
The center says small towns and rural places “are becoming
increasingly complex and multi-dimensional, resulting in an
ever-increasing number of public issues needing resolution.”
Southern Rural
Development Center, http://srdc.msstate.edu
662-325-3207 Lionel “Bo” Beaulieu, director
ljb@srdc.msstate.edu
SRDC says it seeks to strengthen the capacity of the region's
29 land-grant institutions to address critical contemporary
rural-development issues affecting communities in the rural
South.
Western
Rural Development Center, http://wrdc.usu.edu/
435-797-9732 Don E. Albrecht, director don.albrecht@usu.edu
DEVELOPMENT
Asset Based Community
Development Institute, http://www.abcdinstitute.org/
847-491-8711 abcd@northwestern.edu
The ABCD Institute conducts research on capacity-building community
development.
Electric Utility Database, http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/page/eia861.html
Housing Tracker,
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/
National Congress
For Community Economic Development, 202-289-9020
http://www.ncced.org
NCCED is is the trade association for community development
corporations (CDCs) and the community economic development (CED)
industry.
Rural Studies
program, University of Kentucky, www.rural.org
Conducts research into the economic opportunities and
problems of rural areas.
USDA Rural Development,
http://www.rurdev.usda.gov
This group of agencies in the U.S. Department of Agriculture
heldp finance water and sewer systems, housing, health clinics,
emergency-service facilities and, through the Rural
Utilities Service, electric and telephone service.
It makes loans to businesses through banks and community-managed
lending pools, offers technical assistance and information to
help start and improve cooperatives get started and improve
the effectiveness of their member services. It also provide
technical assistance for community empowerment programs.
U.S. Economic
Development Administration, http://www.eda.gov
EDA helps rural and urban areas with high unemployment, low
income, or other severe economic distress.
ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY
(high-speed or broadband Internet, etc.)
Federal Communications
Commission pages on rural service, http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/telecommunications-service-rural-america
iTown,
http://www.itowncom.net/news.html
National Rural
Telecommunications Cooperative, www.nrtc.coop
NATIONAL JOB MARKET/ECONOMIC
SECURITY
Congressional
Budget Office, http://www.cbo.gov/
Lots of publications and reports.
Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities,
http://www.cbpp.org
Yahoo! Finance
Search, http://finance.yahoo.com/search
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, www.stlouisfed.org
Consumer Price
Index, measure of inflation: http://www.bls.gov/cpi/;
also a site on the limits of the CPI and other measures of inflation:
http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifaq.htm
STATE-SPECIFIC
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GROUPS
Fresh Energy (Minn.),
http://fresh-energy.org/about/
651-225-0870 408 St. Peter Street., Suite 220, St. Paul MN 55102
Montana Community
Development Corp., http://www.mtcdc.org
406-728-9234, ext. 215 Lynn Dankowski lynnd@mtcdc.org 110 East Broadway, 2nd Floor, Missoula MT 59802
Nebraska Community Foundation, http://www.nebcommfound.org
402-323-7330 Jeff Yost, president jeffyost@nebcommfound.org
3833 South 14th Street, PO Box 83107, Lincoln, NE 68501
(Nebraska) Center
for Rural Affairs, http://www.cfra.org
402-687-2103 Chuck Hassebrook chuckh@cfra.org
145 Main Street, PO Box 136, Lyons NE 68038
(New Mexico) Regional
Development Corp., http://www.rdcnm.org
505-989-8004 info@rdcnm.org
706 Bond Street, Espanola, NM 87532
North Carolina
Rural Economic Developement Center, www.ncruralcenter.org
919-250-4314 Billy Ray Hall brhall@ncruralcenter.org
Leslie Scott lscott@ncruralcenter.org
4021 Carya, Raleigh NC 27610
North Carolina
Institute of Minority Economic Development, http://www.ncimed.com
919-956-8889 info@ncimed.com 114 W Parrish, Durham NC 27701
South Carolina
Association of Community Development Corporations,
843-579-9855 www.communitydevelopmentsc.org
PO Box 20577, Charleston SC 29413
West Viriginia Community Foundations Consortiumhttp://www.givetowestvirginia.org/index.html
304-517-1450 PO Box 985, Weston, WV 26452
(W. Va.) Center
for Economic Options, http://www.centerforeconomicoptions.org
304-345-1298 Pam Curry pcurry@economicoptions.org
910 Quarrier Street, Suite 206, Charleston, WV 25301
The
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues helps non-metropolitan media define the public agenda in their
communities, through strong reporting and commentary on local
issues and on broader issues that have local impact. Its initial
focus area is Central Appalachia, but as an arm of the University
of Kentucky it has a statewide mission, and it has national
scope. It has academic collaborators at Appalachian State University,
East Tennessee State University, Eastern Kentucky University,
Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Marshall University, Middle
Tennessee State University, Ohio University, Southeast Missouri
State University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill,
the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Washington and Lee University,
West Virginia University and the Knight Community Journalism
Fellows Program at the University of Alabama. It is funded by
the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University
of Kentucky, with additional financial support from the Ford
Foundation. To get notices of Rural Blog postings and
other Institute news, click here.
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