They say all politics is local, so where's the local news coverage this election year?

Welcome to a Marketplace Morning Report Special,

we're calling Democracy in the Desert.

I'm Dave Rancaccio.

I've been traveling to what are called news deserts

in Super Tuesday states to hear about the business models that are failing

or informing voters as they make their choices.

We begin our democracy in the desert coverage in Valverdi County, Texas, where Mexico is just

across the river.

Breakfast in one of the 204 counties in America,

researchers have labeled a news desert.

Here at Skilits in the county seat of Del Rio,

there are biscuits smothered in chilly and

surprise for a local news desert, one diner reading what turns out to be a daily local newspaper.

Well, yes and no. He shows me it's Zokalo Acunya, a paper from Acunya, a city nearby, but over in another country.

Zokolo will cover big stories from South Texas for Spanish-speaking readers, but it's not big on covering

the local races on the ballot on the Texas side.

And had I been here on a Friday, there is an online news site that puts a paper edition on the

stands one day a week. My son hooked me up to the Internet New York Times but

it's not the same I want I want to have something to hold.

Bob Marshall, retired hospital administrator, says he is a big fan of Texas public radio out of San Antonio.

Still...

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