Bill Fisher follows kilowatt-hours. It goes with his job as chief executive of Paragould Light Water and Cable, a city-owned utility in Paragould, Ark. He observes, for instance, that industries bought 51 percent of all of the electricity his company sold in 2011, up from 48 percent in 2009. That's "a larger percentage of electrical usage by manufacturing than you normally would see in a community this size," 35 percent or so being more typical, he says. From the numbers, it's obvious to him that this is a community with an unusually strong and growing manufacturing base.