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Rural Educators Seek to Address Social Issues in the Classroom, Face Challenges in Implementation
Editor’s Note: The Rural Assembly — a program of the Center for Rural Strategies, which also publishes the Daily Yonder — conducted these focus groups with Generation Citizen and Making Caring Common. Rural educators are looking for ways to integrate productive discussion of and interaction with social...
Kansas’ Smallest School District Prepares to Close in Warning Sign for Rural Communities
This story was originally published by the Kansas Reflector. Eighth-grade graduates walked the stage May 16 as family members cheered them on, filling rows in the front of the Healy public school district’s auditorium. School board members were seated at the side of the stage to congratulate the students...
Commentary: We Can Reverse the Trend of Worsening Rural Health Care
If you live in a rural area in America, your life expectancy is lower than if you live in a city. This is an awful truth, and that disparity has only widened in recent years. A study by the USDA’s Economic Research Service found Americans aged 24-54 in rural areas are dying of unintentional causes at a dramatically higher rate than their counterparts in urban areas.
Commentary: What We Learn from Our Dads
This article was first published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I still see my dad, pushing a wheelbarrow up and down the length of our barn, feeding his cows with his little boy atop the corn pile to help. This is how we learned to work. I hear myself crying...
45 Degrees North: Making Room In The Rural Housing Shortage
Right now, there aren’t many properties for sale in my area. That’s true in many rural places, although here there may be a few more high-end listings — retirement dream homes built by people now needing to move nearer to family, health care providers and other services. With few comparables, those properties may sit on the market for a while. But there are few listings that might be affordable for a first-time buyer. And those get snapped up quickly – often by non-residents as second homes.
Q&A: How Do You Make Fry Bread?
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.
Experts: Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill May Benefit Millions of Rural Americans
As more rural hospitals and rural pharmacies close their doors, forcing patients to drive farther to get necessary medical attention, there’s one bright spot on the horizon, according to experts: an over-the-counter birth control pill. In July 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made Opill the first non-prescription...
‘The Last Stop in Yuma County’ Aims for a Fresh Take on a Familiar Setup
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.
Advocates Call for a Research-Based Approach to Closing Rural Prisons
In 1970, the U.S. – state governments, primarily, set out on a 30-year prison-building spree. At that time, according to the Urban Institute at Brown University, there were 525 prisons across the country. By the turn of the century, 1,100 more had been constructed, more than half of which were placed in rural, predominantly Black and Latine communities with high poverty rates, few educational opportunities, and limited access to capital and other resources.
Are Rural Communities Prone to Conspiracy?
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 question I’ve asked myself time and again over...
New Round of Federal Grants Will Inject Billions into Rural Renewable Energy Projects
A new round of grants from the federal government will pay out $78 million across 12 states and 13 Tribal nations, hoping to reduce energy bills for rural people and create new renewable energy projects, the Biden administration announced. The money will help fund 19 projects in Alaska, Oklahoma, Alabama,...
Rural Wisconsin Voters and Election Officials Face Additional Hurdles Without Ballot Drop Boxes
This story was originally published by Votebeat Wisconsin. If voters in Burnside, Wisconsin, want to drop off their absentee ballot before an election, they have to go several miles outside of town, down a hilly, rural county road that requires four-wheel-drive most of the year, and to the doorway or mailbox of Melissa Kono’s house.
Rural Employment Improves but Lags Recession-Era Jobs
Rural America added 171,200 jobs last year but still hasn’t recovered the employment it lost during the pandemic. For that matter, it hasn’t replaced the jobs lost during the Great Recession 15 years ago. According to a Daily Yonder analysis of new data from the Bureau of Labor...
Second Montana Ski Resort Looks to Turn Wastewater Into Powder
This story was originally published by Montana Free Press. The Spanish Peaks Mountain Club in Big Sky has asked for a permit from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to let it turn wastewater into snow for skiing and snowboarding. The private club is the second Montana ski area to try and implement snowmaking technology that proponents say is good for the environment and skiers amid a warming climate.
Accidental Rancher: Breeding Diversity
I can’t remember when I first heard about the Livestock Conservancy. It was probably back when I fell in love with Shetland sheep and was researching the breed. The Livestock Conservancy’s stated mission is: “To protect America’s endangered livestock and poultry breeds from extinction.” Their website includes helpful information about the Shetland breed and other endangered varieties in the hope of educating people about all the cool animals that might be a good fit for their farms or ranches.
Q&A: What Can Murals Do for Main Street?
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 Universities Experiment with ‘Innovation Hubs’
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. From his days...
New Federal Rule Tightens Black Lung Regulations, but Some States Make Diagnosis Harder
Dr. David Blackley came back to his alma mater, East Tennessee State University (ETSU), with a warning. A research epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a component of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Blackley noted an alarming uptick in a disease that at the end of the last century was on the decline: black lung.
Efforts to Keep Healthy Schools Meals in Rural Colorado Free for All
In Colorado, Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA), an initiative that currently provides every K-12 student with free breakfast and lunch, is facing a budget deficit that could possibly take away benefits for rural Colorado schools, children, and food producers. A 2023 Feeding America study found that 9 in 10...
Can Justice Exist within the Burden of Proof?
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. As of last Thursday former President Donald Trump is a convicted...
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