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The Commercial Alternative to Traditional Medicare Is Putting Financial Strain on Rural Hospitals
For more than a dozen years, leaders in the rural health care field have issued strong warnings: Rural hospitals are struggling financially. Despite public attention and some changes in federal policies, difficulties continue. A new report from a private healthcare consulting company has found that nearly 20% of all rural hospitals are at risk of closing.
Under Cover of Darkness, ‘True Detective: Night Country’ Unfolds at Breakneck Speed
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.
‘Fourth Wave’ of Opioid Overdoses Reaches a County Once Called the Epicenter of the Epidemic
This story was originally published by KFF Health News. From 2006 through 2014, more than 81 million painkiller pills were shipped to Huntington, West Virginia and surrounding rural Cabell County. The arrival of prescription opioids onto seemingly every block of Huntington, a city of about 46,000 people, augured the first...
Commentary – ‘White Rural Rage’: Which Came First? The Title or the ‘Research’?
A new book on “white rural rage” argues that rural Americans are the most racist, xenophobic, conspiracist, anti-democratic, and violent “geodemographic” subgroup of Americans out there. The authors, Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman, say that their book is driven by data and that even if you don’t like their conclusions the evidence is clear. The problem with this book is not a lack of citations; they “bring the receipts,” as they like to boast. The problem is that those receipts belong in the trash.
Commentary: Lack of Political Competition Harms Rural Americans
“We pretty much own rural and small town America,” bragged Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell in 2022, and he was right: According to data from the Pew Research Center, 59% of rural Americans voted for Republican House candidates in 2018, then 65% voted for Donald Trump in 2020, then 69% for Republicans in 2022. The numbers for white rural Americans are even higher. What used to be a small GOP advantage in rural areas has widened into a chasm.
Who Benefits from Daylight Saving Time?
As if I wasn’t already running on too much caffeine and not enough sleep these days, Sunday marks the beginning of Daylight Saving Time (DST), where we turn our clocks one hour forward (and lose one hour of sleep). I’m told that while the short-term adjustment is exhausting, the...
A Rural Calling: Rev. Brad Davis
Rev. Brad Davis is reimagining the rural Appalachian church. This entails imagining a new gospel – a gospel rooted in the reality before him. Take a ride with Davis along the two-lanes that thread these Southern West Virginia coal camps – once vibrant; now vigilant – through the hollers and up the switchbacks, some so abrupt, Davis affirms, you’ll pass yourself round the bend.
Texas Fires: Burned Rangeland Can Recover Quickly, But Cattle Ranchers Face Struggles Ahead to Find and Feed Their Herds
This story was originally published by The Conversation. Strong winds spread the largest wildfire in Texas history across more than 1 million acres of rangeland in the Panhandle, the heart of the state’s cattle-producing region, and into Oklahoma in late February 2024. Light precipitation on Feb. 29 helped firefighters as they tried to contain the Smokehouse Creek Fire and other blazes threatening homes and livestock, but the heat and winds were forecast to pick up again. At least two people have died.
Uninsured Country: Affordable Health Care Eludes Many Family Farmers and Ranchers
Super glue and animal antibiotics are in the medicine cabinets of many farmers and ranchers in Texas — tools of the trade they sometimes use on themselves to avoid a trip to the doctor. It’s not that they have anything against physicians. It’s because they either lack health insurance...
Coalition of Environmental Orgs Releases Policy Platform for ‘Zombie Mines’ Reclamation Work
A number of organizations like the Alliance for Appalachia, Earthjustice and Sierra Club, among others, who work in coal communities on issues related to the environment, law and other areas have released a policy platform to address and prevent unreclaimed “zombie mines”— idled modern-era mines that have not been cleaned up by the responsible coal companies.
Advocates of WIC-Funded Breastfeeding Programs Concerned About Funding Levels
This story was originally published by MinnPost. Minnesota’s federally funded breastfeeding support programs are at risk of not receiving enough funding next year, advocates of the initiative say, meaning new prospective participants could be turned away and that services could be reduced. Many counties across the state already lack...
Ozarks Notebook: The Ozarks Soon to Shine in 2024 Solar Eclipse
If a man lived on the moon, even he might be aware that a bunch of folks in the Ozarks are anticipating his rare midday appearance during the 2024 total solar eclipse. On April 8, 2024, a narrow band of total darkness will pass through Mexico before heading northeast across the United States and into Canada. The most central part of the path will experience about four minutes of “totality,” or total darkness, as the moon moves between the earth and the sun. And a chunk of that band falls across both the Arkansas and Missouri Ozarks.
Q&A: Magical Realism in the Rural South
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.
Commentary: It’s Time Governments Consider Paying Doctors to Practice in Rural Areas
This opinion column was originally published in the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette. You can learn more about this independent, employee-owned news organization here. Rural health care is in crisis and while many solutions have been offered to encourage specialist physicians to practice in small towns, the fact that rural health care still is in crisis suggests that none have been successful.
Manatee County’s Population Is Exploding. Will There Be Room Left for Rural?
Justin Mathews started cultivating his connection with wildlife when he became a master falconer at the tender age of 16. These days, the Manatee County, Florida, native mostly rescues wildlife, such as birds with plastic bags caught in their beaks or turtles that have collided with motorcars. Last time he...
Rural Students Navigate Frenzied FAFSA Rollout
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. Rural students have...
Trump Wins Michigan with Slightly Greater Support in Rural Areas and Suburbs
Donald Trump won the Michigan primary with widespread support across the state, with slightly higher margins in rural areas and the suburbs of metropolitan areas, according to a Daily Yonder analysis. The results were a soft echo of former President Trump’s performance in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, in...
Could Beyoncé’s Country Debut Redefine a Genre as We Know It?
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. A long-awaited overhaul of country music is happening before our very...
New Demands to Measure Emissions Raise Cautious Hopes in Pennsylvania Among Environmental Sleuths Who Monitor Fracking Sites
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News. For the first time, Pennsylvania fracking companies are facing real-time scrutiny from federal and state regulators over emissions of methane and other harmful air pollutants at drilling sites and storage facilities for toxic wastewater left over from oil and gas extractions.
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