My Little Town

(Newser) - Barack Obama was “basically right on target” about Pennsylvania bitterness, the product of one small-town household says: John Baer, in the Philadelphia Daily News , writes that the people he grew up around were, and still are, angry. And they have a right to be, Baer adds: Blue-collar Pennsylvanians see their interests ignored by gutless politicians beholden to special interests. More »

(Newser) - Barack Obama is catching flak for comments made to an audience of wealthy Californians about small towners, Reuters reports. Talking about people in towns where jobs have vanished, the candidate said, "It's not surprising they then get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." More »

(Newser) - A new device will link rural areas to the Internet at low cost and without cables, Technology Review reports. Intel has tested the Wi-Fi platform in Africa, Asia and South America, and will sell it this year for less than $500. What makes it work? The router and antenna are old-style, but radios beam signals back and forth to make sure data was received. More »

(Newser) - The world’s first commercial oil well was in Oil City, Pa., which saw its fortunes fall along with the crude supply. Now that prices are at historic highs, Oil City is part of a renaissance. The easy crude is long gone, but a motley assortment of would-be barons is using everything from nuclear scanners to dynamite to churn up those last few drops. The Wall Street Journal pays a visit. More »

(Newser) - It may have been nothing more than puppy love, but the mayor of a small Texas town has been driven out of office after it was discovered she secretly kept the neighbor's dog she claimed had died, reports the BBC. The Shih Tzu named Puddles was later spotted at a dog groomer's. The dogsitting mayor also reported to police that the pooch, whom she had renamed Panchito, was missing. More »

(Newser) - A 94-year-old Tennessee man was found dead with his hand cut off after a relative ran afoul of drug dealers who kidnapped him in retaliation, the Citizen Tribune of Morristown reports. "No one deserved to die like he did," the sheriff said of Willie Morgan. "This poor man was supposed to die peacefully on a front porch swing, not like this." More »

(Newser) - Rural America isn’t all hearty farmland, Newsweek writes: Many country areas are “food deserts,” supplied mainly by convenience stores. With supermarkets distant and healthy food more expensive than junk, impoverished residents often become unhealthy—hungry and fat. “A nutritionist will just say, 'Buy more fruits and vegetables,' when, in fact, the buying part is not simple,” says one epidemiologist. More »

(Newser) - Thousands of mourners, including actor Matthew McConaughey and boxing champ Joe Frazier, gathered today to bid farewell to Evel Knievel, New West reports. The ceremony took place in the famed daredevil’s hometown, Butte, Mont., which marked the arrival of his coffin last night with a 3-minute salvo of fireworks. Knievel died Friday at 69. More »

(Newser) - Criminals may want to think twice the next time they feel like snapping photos of their exploits: authorities nationwide are using the indecent exposures as evidence against them, the Wall Street Journal reports. “We pray for those kinds of cases,” said an assistant state attorney, while a small-town prosecutor estimated phone cameras supply evidence 40-50 times a year. More »

(Newser) - If the Southeast drought’s effects on Orme, Tenn., are a sign of things to come, folks in Atlanta should start scheduling their showers. The rural home to 145 people has run completely dry, and what water gets trucked in can be used only between 6 and 9 pm. This means citizens have to rush to get supper made, clothes washed, and baths drawn, the AP reports. More »

(Newser) - Measured by President Bush's goal—to give every America access to broadband this year—it's not a success. But the effort to wire rural America has made impressive progress, the Economist reports. The US government has given more than $1 billion to internet providers in distant markets in an effort reminiscent of the New Deal's rural electrification project. More »

(Newser) - It's been almost a year since the shooting spree at an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania in which five girls were killed and five wounded. In the Lancaster New Era, the families talk with stunning directness about the particular pain of losing a child and making peace with the "new normal." "You can wake up one day and think, 'You know what? I'm starting to heal," says one mother . More »

(Newser) - A small British town has resorted to posting signs telling truck drivers to ignore their GPS navigation systems because vehicles too big for the hamlet's narrow country roads were trying to squeeze through. Foreign drivers in particular were relying on what their navigation systems told them and missing signs that warned truck drivers not to drive through town. More »