If you were looking for signs that the recession was starting to hit (hard) in rural America, here's one for you: Land values dropped by 6 percent in Iowa during the last three months of 2008, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Dan Piller reports in the Des Moines Register than this was the first drop in farmland prices in a decade, but one that was expected after the precipitous drop in corn and soybean prices since last summer. The value of these crops has fallen by more than 50 percent.

Land values dropped across the Midwest — Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan. The fall in values was deepest in Iowa.

Economists expect that the decline in values will result in smaller capital investments by farmers. They'll buy fewer pieces of new equipment, which will hurt manufacturing. (Deere & Co. is one of the largest manufacturers in Iowa.) Deere reports that it expects flat sales next year after big gains in 2008.

We've noticed a smidgen of rural smugness about the Manhattan swindler Bernie Madoff, the New York City dude who ran a $50 billion pyramid scheme. You don't find that kind of dishonesty in rural America. Well, what about Ronald Keith Owens of Mineral Wells, Texas? This country con man took $2.6 million from investors — and for his troubles he was sentenced to 60 years in state prison for theft. Owens also pled guilty to federal counts of wire fraud and filing a false tax return in a Ponzi scheme that the Mineral Wells Index said cheated hundreds of people across the U.S.

"Unlike Madoff, Owens perpetrated his scam far from the glamour of Wall Street – in Mineral Wells, a small town west of Fort Worth," wrote Texas Securities Commissioner Denise Voigt Crawford. "Madoff’s alleged victims include celebrities, wealthy families, philanthropists and universities. Owens stole mainly from the Main Street crowd, including individual investors, grocers, and an array of church groups." Owens used money from new investors to show profits to old investors, the same shell game played by Madoff.

“You learned how to counsel and talk to people out of their anguish and it seems to me you also learned how to talk them out of their money – and you did that,” said State District Judge Jerry Ray when he sentenced the 72-year-old Owens (above). “You have left in your wake a sea of hurt and heartache. When you steal from people and do it so often that you lose track of zeros, it shows a callousness and disregard, not only for the law, but the good folks you’re taking advantage of. You squandered your right to be free in what time you have left,” Ray added.

Rural broadband access is just half the battle -- maybe less than half, says Frank Odasz. Broadband doesn't produce jobs, people do, and they need training in best practices and entrepreneurship and trusted networks of support.

300,000 jobs. Who knows where Sen. Tom Harkin came up with that figure, but the Iowa Democrat says there are programs awaiting funding within the Department of Agriculture that could spawn 300,000 jobs. Most of the money would go to the USDA's Rural Development agency, which helps build houses, water and sewer systems, wind energy and biofuels.

Chris Clayton, DTN's Ag Policy Editor, quotes new Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack saying, "USDA is uniquely situated to be quite effective to put resources to play immediately." Clayton wrote that the stimulus bill currently has "provisions to expand the electrical grid, as well as reduce carbon emissions, increase carbon capture, buy more fuel-efficient mass-transportation buses and reduce diesel emissions." Vilsack told Clayton that USDA has "programs that are already in existence in the farm bill and other mechanisms that would allow us to begin investing in biofuels and a variety of programs to assist the biofuels and renewable energy."

Vilsack also talked about broadband access. "We know the areas where there is some broadband access so it's not like we have to reinvent the wheel with something along those lines," Vilsack told Clayton. "Through our Rural Development programs we're well aware of a number of infrastructure projects that could make a difference and create jobs."