Immigration, healthcare, and environmental issues include passing references to rural. In the debate over trade policy, candidates use farmers as an example of who is getting harmed. Rural issues emerged in passing in some of Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate. Candidates touched on rural issues in their comments about immigration, […]
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Two decades after health officials in Southwest Virginia sounded the alarm about the devastating impact Oxycontin was having on the region, hard numbers confirm that drug manufacturers and distributors carpet-bombed Central Appalachia with the powerful drug and other opioids. An investigation by the Washington Post shows that pharmaceutical distribution of the opioids […]
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Is there room to tell more complete stories about the diverse circumstances and perspectives in rural America? We better hope so, says Kansas native Sarah Smarsh, author of the bestselling memoir “Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth.” Smarsh speaks with veteran […]
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Increased food-assistance spending that was part of the 2009 economic stimulus package helped increase employment at the peak of the Great Recession, especially in rural areas, a first-of-its-kind study says. During the peak and immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, nonmetropolitan counties gained one job for every $10,000 in increased […]
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Last week’s New York Times columns by Paul Krugman and David Brooks offer textbook examples of the unhelpful frames that define our conversation about rural America. Americans have a couple of ways they tend to think about rural America. On one side of the coin, we see it as a […]
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Grundy County, Tennessee, ranks near the bottom of the state in the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. But that hasn’t stopped the small county from initiating a top-tier response to improving community health. In the new rankings released today, the county improves its position from a last-place 95th to 93rd. […]
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