A controversial study finds that Indian casinos are good for low-wage workers but unlikely to produce more high-wage earners.

The Netroots Nation is meeting in Las Vegas. President Obama spoke (by video) to the group to the liberal group of Internet activist that revolve around the Daily Kos website. For the first couple of years. Netroots had sessions on rural America — the Yonder participated in a few of those panels — so we decided to check this year's gathering.

Nada. Oh, well, there's a movie that "illustrates the challenges of being an outsider in a conservative rural community...." Nothing about farms or small towns. We guess they've given up.

• The New York Times has a story about Beatrice, Nebraska's efforts to attract new residents by giving away vacant lots (above).  It's really a story about property taxes and the lengths cities (small, large and in between) are going to in order to maintain tax revenues.

"Some tiny towns, particularly in the Great Plains, have made such offers before, mainly as a way to increase dwindling populations," writes Times reporter Monica Davey. "But disappearing is not the fear in Beatrice, which is home to several lawn-mowing equipment manufacturers and where the population has held steady at around 12,000 for decades. Instead, city officials are hoping to return some of the many lots the city has accumulated, because of unpaid taxes or flooding risks from the Big Blue River, and return them to the tax rolls." 

•Lots of articles about food safety — or the lack thereof. After scares, and deaths, due to tainted food, the nation still doesn't have a new food safety law. The House passed  a bill last year, but the Senate has yet to act. The Austin American-Statesman has a story about the delay, and what Whole Foods stores are doing in the meantime. Food writer Eric Schlosser, in the New York Times, tells us that 325,000 Americans are hospitalized by a food-borne illness every year. "Nobody should lose a child because the Senate lacks the will and the leadership to act," Schlosser writes.

Rural America — like the rest of the country — is getting older. But it's not that simple. In some parts of the Great Plains, the percentage of young people is growing!

Republican senatorial candidate Rand Paul (above) visited rural Kentucky promoting his path to prosperity — including reductions in farm subsidy programs. Paul has called for an end to many farm programs, calling them an example of government waste. Democrat Jack Conway has been hitting the Republican on this issue in Kentucky's farming counties. 

Education Week has started a report on rural education. It's titled, well, Rural Education, and it's written by Mary Schulken, who knows rural schools from years covering them in North Carolina. Today's entry is about changes taking place in the FFA. You can get to Mary's stories here. 

The world's largest initial public offering will likely be the Agricultural Bank of China, a state-run institution created to help spur development in rural China. The bank has 24,000 branches and 350 million customers. 

Analysts aren't very keen on the prospects for a rural bank, even one in fast-growing China. "The rural banking business generally presents higher risks and lower returns compared to the urban banking business due to the lack of collateral, variable employment state and absence of credit history on rural clients," said one analyst.