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45 Degrees North: Spring Cleaning And Piles Of E-waste
For many, spring cleaning starts once it’s warm enough to open all the windows. But I’m only giving our house a lick and a promise. Everything will get a deep cleaning when we repaint the interior this summer. So for now, I’m channeling my nesting urges into sorting stuff – stuff to keep, stuff to repair, stuff to donate or give away, stuff to haul to our rural trash transfer station, stuff the transfer station can’t take, and stuff I don’t know what to do about.
Q&A: On Old Coal Mines, Re-Growing Native Appalachian Forests
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.
Urban Institute Researchers Examine Fallout from Texas Wildfires on Rural Communities in the Region
Several factors will need to be addressed to provide equitable recovery to those living in West Texas who experienced losses from the wildfires sweeping through the area, according to a new analysis from the Urban Institute. As of March 5, 2024, the fires in the Texas Panhandle have left at...
The Rural Workforce is Changing. Colleges are Scrambling to Keep Up.
This story was originally co-published by Open Campus and the Montana Free Press. Lindsey Flather is exactly the type of student that colleges and employers in rural states know they must do a better job of reaching. A working mother in her thirties, Flather decided to pursue a new career...
Taber’s Campaign for N.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Is About Empowering Rural Residents
North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture candidate Sarah Taber plans to revive the state’s agricultural economy through common-sense business practices, infrastructure, and improvement of farm labor, all things that resonate with her rural constituents. It was a rainy January morning when Taber took her campaign efforts up the mountain from...
Six Months Late, Congress Finalizes 2024 Federal Budget
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. Congress approved the second and final package of spending bills for...
Advocates: Too Early to Judge Effectiveness of Federal Investments in Rural Maternity Care
New federal and state efforts to pump funding into threatened rural maternity-care programs are underway, but it may be years before anyone will be able judge whether those efforts are effective at preventing the closure of more facilities, advocates say. More than 200 rural hospitals across the country have stopped...
Texas Pro-Voucher Candidates Overcome Rural Resistance with Out-of-State Cash
This story was originally published by Stateline, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts. In rural Texas, public schools are the cultural heart of small towns. People pack the high school stadium for Friday night football games, and FFA classes prepare the next generation for the agricultural life. In many places, more people work for the school district than for any other employer.
Commentary: In Defense of Integrity – Considerations for a True and Just Buffalo Restoration Movement
While the concept may not be a topic of household conversation, people across the country and globe are becoming increasingly aware of Indigenous food sovereignty efforts. One such effort garnering particular traction is the long-standing effort of bison (or buffalo) restoration, an attempt to undo the effects of the intentional near eradication of buffalo in the 1800s as a genocidal, settler-colonial tactic to solve the “Indian problem.” In the 1980s, my father, Fred DuBray, set out on a mission to restore buffalo to their homelands and our relationship to the buffalo, joining and bolstering a collective and often considered “radical” movement of what Leanne Simpson describes as “Indigenous resurgence.”
New Center Focuses on Preserving Rural Rental Housing Units
The head of a new Center at the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) focused on rural renting housing said a U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded program supporting low-income tenants is at-risk of losing housing units if more is not done to preserve them. Kristin Blum was recently named to HAC’s new Center...
Some Medicaid Providers Borrow or Go Into Debt Amid ‘Unwinding’ Payment Disruptions
This story was originally published by KFF Health News. Jason George began noticing in September that Medicaid payments had stalled for some of his assisted living facility residents, people who need help with daily living. Guardian Group Montana, which owns three small facilities in rural Montana, relies on the government...
Accidental Rancher: Back to the Drawing Board
The famous phrase ‘The best laid plans of mice and men’ could easily be amended to ‘The best laid plans of those who labor in agriculture.’ This work truly is a humbling experience in every season. You endeavor to keep all your proverbial balls in the air, then one wind storm, one errant bacteria ingested by one sheep, one month without rain can completely upend any semblance of order you might have been cultivating.
Q&A: Who Is Lana Del Redneck?
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.
Will the Front Range Trail Ever Be Completed?
On the surface, I knew this was going to be a story about a really big, long trail. What I didn’t know is that, in essence, it’s a story about the three Ps: patience, planning and people. I don’t know if those are the official Ps of project...
Is This TV’s Next Wandering Rural Hero?
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.
The Last All Black Town in the West
Wagon wheel impressions still mark the earth of the western Kansas prairie, where, beginning in 1877, Black former slaves journeyed across the plains. Those ruts, a physical reminder of the former slaves’ brave and challenging escape from new post-Reconstruction oppressions in the American South, and their dreams of true independence, self-determination and self-governance.
A Love Letter to Nevada’s Wide Open Spaces
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. One of my favorite places in the world is a small...
Reentry Program for Those Incarcerated Offers ‘A Model for Us to Follow’
“Every time I was incarcerated,” Brittany Herrington said, “every single time, I did not want to do drugs when I left. I wanted to get a job, get a home, get my kid back. Every single time. Nothing was gonna stop me. “But no one sat me down...
A Rare Printing Press, a Community Art Space, a Small Town Where Creativity Thrives
In rural news and analysis, there’s a lot of talk about what happens when a small town’s newspaper goes out of business. But what about when a town’s former newspaper building gets repurposed to bring a hub of art and media – and affordable housing – to its small Western community?
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