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Ozarks Notebook: Tyson, the Grinch Who Upended Christmas City
Next to a glass window in the Noel Post Office, Dot Harner sits and hand stamps mail with images of holiday wreaths and Christmas trees. The ink-laden rubber stamps continue a more-than-90-year tradition in the small Missouri community that’s only pronounced Noel during the holiday season. The rest of the year, it’s “Nole.”
(Slasher) Santa Is Coming to Town
You know that movie where a lawyer from the city comes home to her small town for the holidays and falls in love with her middle-school crush, a bland but handsome bakery owner who is incongruously fit for a man who supposedly spends all day making croissants? What about the one where the CEO from the city reluctantly goes to a small town for the holidays and falls in love with a bland but handsome Christmas tree farmer, whose physique is at least a bit more consistent with his profession? Or what about the one where—nevermind, you get the idea.
Q&A: Using Art to Highlight Coal Ash Pollution in Appalachia
Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.
Rural Counties Dependent on Recreation Industry Show Best Recovery from Pandemic Employment Loss
Rural counties where the recreation industry is a big part of the local economy are more likely than other types of rural counties to have regained the jobs they lost during the pandemic, a Daily Yonder analysis shows. Rural America overall still hasn’t regained the jobs it lost in the...
Grant Program Helps Rural Communities Engage with Environmental Challenges through Film Screenings
If your rural or small-town group is trying to have a bigger impact on environmental issues, the Rural Cinema project has a suggestion: Go to the movies. Rural Cinema helps rural and small town leaders use film screenings “as a resource in their work for environmental justice and protection,” according to the grant program home page.
Rural and Indigenous School Uses Virtual Reality to Address Opportunity Gaps
Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in Mile Markers, a twice monthly newsletter from Open Campus about the role of colleges in rural America. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox. All things considered,...
More Funding for Harm Reduction Programs in Rural Maine
It’s well documented that urban and rural communities alike are suffering from our nation’s overdose crisis. But rural regions must overcome some distinctive barriers, among them: higher rates of chronic illnesses; no, or very little, public transportation and great distances to care. A shortage of services in general.
Thoughts for the Longest Night of the Year
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Keep It Rural, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Like what you see? Join the mailing list for more rural news, thoughts, and analysis in your inbox each week. This is a strange time of year for routine. Depending on...
For Small-Town Newspapers, It’s a Time of Change, Struggle and Opportunity
In Cassville, Missouri, a town of about 3,000 people, newspaper publisher Kyle Troutman had heard that a well-connected local businessman was holding a public meeting to talk about crime and drug issues in the town. Troutman and his wife, Jordan, own the Cassville Democrat newspaper, whose motto is “Covering Barry...
‘We’re Cut Off’: Rural Farmers Are Desperate for Broadband Internet
This story was originally published by Modern Farmer. When Covid-19 hit, Lisa Stroup was excited for her granddaughter to come stay with her full time. The girl’s father was deployed with the military and her mother is a front-line worker; it was safer and easier for everyone if the then-five-year-old moved in with her grandparents for a while.
What Journalism Can Do for Small Towns
When I was in high school, my hometown paper closed. That was right around the time I started to care a lot about national politics and take an interest in local issues. I don’t think I was precocious enough to fantasize about a robust watchdog institution for my town, but the absence of a newspaper added to my sense that we were living in our own little realm, totally unknown to the rest of the world. In that universe, there were a lot of scams and scandals. It felt like anything could happen and nothing could be proven.
Persistent Wildfire Smoke Is Eroding Rural America’s Mental Health
This story was produced through a collaboration between the Daily Yonder, which covers rural America, and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and news group. Will and Julie Volpert have led white water rafting trips on Southern Oregon’s Rogue and Klamath rivers for over a decade for their company Indigo Creek Outfitters, out of the small town of Talent, Oregon. The rafting season, which extends from May to September, is a perfect time to be out on the river where snowpack-fed cold water provides respite from the region’s hot summer.
Doctors on (Video) Call: Rural Medics Get Long-Distance Help in Treating Man Gored by Bison
This story was originally published by KFF Health News. Rural medics who rescued rancher Jim Lutter after he was gored by a bison didn’t have much experience handling such severe wounds. But the medics did have a doctor looking over their shoulders inside the ambulance as they rushed Lutter...
Accidental Rancher: A Sheep-Breeding Program that Pairs Ease and Joy
December is date month on our ranch – at least where the sheep are concerned. After a few years of trials and a whole bunch of errors, we finally tried lambing during the month of May, which meant December 1st the bucks went in with the ladies, and then we waited.
Q&A: How Do Immigrants Navigate Rural America’s Healthcare System?
Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.
Recovery Court: This Judicial Diversion Program Converts Sweat Equity into Freedom
Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of a series on a judicially sponsored fitness recovery program in rural Virginia. Today we visit a court-sponsored workout, where some people who face drug charges get a chance to “work off” some of their legal woes through adhering to an exercise program. And the judges who came up with the idea exercise alongside them.
Recovery Court: Judge Says His Rural Community Is Ready for More Than ‘Lock Them Up’
A drug court alternative to incarceration – known locally as Recovery Court — was introduced in Grayson and Carroll counties, Virginia, in 2019 by Judges Lee Harrell and Brett Geisler. In 2022, Harrell spurred the effort to add a fitness requirement to the regimen. Sara June Jo-Sæbo talked with him about his experience as a judge in Southwest Virginia – a place he refers to as an “epicenter of the opioid crisis.”
‘Fiddler on the Roof’: A Rural Origin Story
Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, a newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, retrospectives, recommendations, and more. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox.
Recovery Court: ‘All Rise!’ Judges Join Drug Defendants in Court-Sponsored Fitness Program
“Rivers are easiest to cross at their source.”. Judge Lee Harrell is reading aloud from a book he has propped open on his knee. We’re sitting on the gym floor in a circle, tired from a high-intensity workout. Judge Harrell continues, “Which would you rather do: nearly drown in...
In Defense of Flyover Country
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Keep It Rural, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Like what you see? Join the mailing list for more rural news, thoughts, and analysis in your inbox each week. This edition of Keep It Rural was first sent to subscribers...
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