Chris Dodd supporters in Iowa.Photo: Dodd Campaign The Democrats debated Sunday morning. You missed them? Well, that’s why we have the Yonder. (On the jump page, we’ll compare the ABC Sunday morning debates of both parties’ candidates using “tag clouds.”) It’s not clear that much new was revealed in the 90 minutes of discussion that […]
Posted inAgriculture, Energy, Growth and Development
Letter From Langdon: The Home of Renewal
This is the view now from my backyard. Fields — and four windmills.Photo: Richard Oswald LANGDON, MO — Thirty years ago, an oil company purchased leases on a majority of the land around my home. Being a struggling young farmer, I just knew I’d hit it big. The $2.50 per acre lease was no money-maker, […]
Posted inRural Voters
Barack Obama Goes To Tama and Talks Rural
Barack Obama held a rural summit in Tama, Iowa on Friday. Photo: Obama Campaign Okay, before we get to the news, the Yonder gives you the wild rumor. It’s this: Al Gore will announce his candidacy sometime in the next week. One of our faithful blogs, Green Mountain Daily, has the scoop. It turns out […]
Posted inRural Economy
What a Week in the Markets! The Yonder 40 Fares Well
Investors are probably just thankful this week is over. With four days of losses and one day (Friday) of recovery, all the major stock indexes were down. But for the second week in a row, the Yonder 40 did slightly better than the other major indexes. That doesn’t mean the DY 40 did well. It’s […]
Posted inGrowth and Development
Migration Matters: The Rural South Sheds People This Century
In the 1970s, demographers called it the “rural rebound.” Rural America had been losing population for most of the century. And then in the 1970s, those trends reversed. It was a “dramatic and surprising shift,” according to demographer Ken Johnson. More than 80 percent of the country’s rural counties gained population. Rural counties were gaining […]
Posted inImmigration, Rural Economy
A Shared Tragedy: Mexican Miners in Utah
Media in Mexico have been closely following the Utah mine disaster. Three of the six trapped miners are from Mexico. Here, Noticieros Televisa interviews Susana Salcido, a relative of miner Manuel Arturo Sanchez. We have all been following the mining disaster that took place last Monday in Huntington, Utah ““ a tragedy intimately familiar to […]
Posted inRural Voters
Immigrants, COOL and “Sanctuary Cities” — More Presidential Politics
Fred Thompson in South Carolina. Photo: ready_to_vote When the Yonder last visited with the presidential candidates, Obama was listening, Thompson was testing waters (in a generally conservative way), Republicans were railing about immigrants and Edwards was talking in very specific ways about the rural economy. Okay, the Yonder is looking again and”¦nothing’s changed. In mid-week, […]
Posted inEnergy
At a Utah Coal Mine: Mr. Murray’s Misstatements
Wednesday night, friends and relatives of the six miners trapped in a coal mine near Huntington, Utah, held a vigil at the rodeo grounds. The candles are arranged in a “6”. Photo: Rick Egan, The Salt Lake Tribune As we go to press, six coal miners remain trapped in Murray Energy’s Crandall Canyon Mine, near […]
Posted inWildlife
Chiggers: Try The Wire Brush On The Black & Decker
Chigger bites! Mike Blair’s wife, Chris, came back from a walk with the mark of the chigger.Photo: Mike Blair Chiggers. Now there’s a scourge that brings to mind words you won’t hear in church. Those little devils are always out there, somewhere, waiting invisibly to cause you a week of misery. Anyone who’s spent much […]
Posted inGrowth and Development, Rural Economy
Migration: The Key to Prosperity?
Where you pick up coffee in Dwight, Illinois. (Mural by Steve Connor.) Photo: Jim Frazier What makes for a prosperous rural community? The good people at the Southern Rural Development Center brought together nearly 600 people from 14 southern states to discuss the most important features of rural development. They talked, gathered information and came […]