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The Daily Yonder
Rural Voters in Swing States Present Untapped Potential, New Poll Suggests
Editor’s Note: The Center for Rural Strategies, which publishes the Daily Yonder, conducted this survey with Lake Research Partners. Largely untapped political messaging about the economy could sway a large swath of rural voters in battleground states, a new survey by the Center for Rural Strategies suggests. The findings...
Commentary: In New Poll, Rural Americans Point to Unheard Economic Urgency
For the last couple of years we have been working with groups around the country to get a sense of what rural communities were feeling about the economy. Are country people hurting? Are they optimistic? Is it the same old up one day and down the next? As part of our research, we have commissioned polling, conducted eight focus groups in four states, and shared what we have found with policy professionals and political analysts. As the fog begins to lift here is what I see.
To Do This Work, We Need Your Help
The old adage says familiarity breeds contempt. These days, we know the opposite is true. Lack of familiarity allows us to focus on our differences and treat people we don’t know with scorn. Or even hate them. The fruits of this division are all around us. The Daily Yonder’s...
Kentucky Wants Dark Tourism to Bring More Dollars for Rural Counties
It may be the first time a state tourism department has centered an advertising campaign around local legends of aliens invading a small town. Or ghosts at a seed mill in a 1,500-person community. Or mysterious figures in a graveyard – a parade of mourners going nowhere. Thought to...
Deer Season Is Here. “Zombie Deer Disease” Is too.
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 friend once told me about a hunting trip she went...
Video: The Unlikely Home of Mullen Steel Guitars
It sounds like another vocal in the band. It can put you at ease after a hard day’s work or gently whisk you onto the dance floor. You could be spacing out and picking at the label on your beer not even realizing you’re being reeled in by it. It’s the steel guitar and they’re born out in the middle of nowhere (or middle of everywhere, depending on the song).
Rural Hospital Turns to Crowdfunding for Help
Bucktail Medical Center, an independent hospital in western Clinton County, Pennsylvania, is asking for nearly $1.5 million on the crowdfunding platform to help it stay open. Tim Reeves, the hospital’s administrator, said in an interview with the Daily Yonder that the 16-hospital bed and adjacent 43-bed nursing home are the only hospital with in-patient facilities for nearly 40 miles. While the hospital has struggled for years, he said, it had just come out of bankruptcy reorganization and plans were being made to attract more patients and increase revenue.
Millions of Rural Americans Rely on Private Wells. Few Regularly Test Their Water.
This story was originally published by KFF Health News. Allison Roderick has a warning and a pledge for rural residents of her county: The water from their wells could be contaminated, but the government can help make it safe. Roderick is the environmental health officer for Webster County in north-central...
Welcome to the Rural Horror Picture Show
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.
45 Degrees North: Campfire Tales From The Dead Zone
Once upon a time, country kids in too-large pants and shirts stuffed with real straw piled into cars to collect treats from neighbors, who mostly gave out apples and popcorn balls. Those were Norman Rockwell Halloweens, with nary a glow-in-the-dark Jello brain or Naughty Nurse in sight. Oh, for the...
Q&A: The Consequences of Whitewashing an Opioid Epidemic
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.
How One Rural Indiana County Became a Re-Education Catalyst
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. Indiana’s Lawrence County...
Video: Lions, Tigers and Bears? Welcome Home, to Rural Colorado
The first animal Pat Craig saved from a cage was a baby jaguar. He’d name her Freckles. Having no other way to transport her quickly from South Carolina to Colorado, he took her with him on a commercial flight claiming she was a Himalayan housecat. It’s neat to think that there were airline passengers unwittingly flying home with the biggest cat species in America, and the very beginning of the world’s largest sanctuary for carnivores.
A Rural Calling: Peggy Schaffer
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, high-speed internet was a luxury to which to aspire. Can you remember such a time?. Rural Americans certainly can. Fortunately, today, for many but not all, triple-digit Mbps download speeds are available and reasonably affordable. Peggy Schaffer is among the broadband advocate-actualizers who’ve helped relegate those days to a faint memory.
House Speaker Debacle Could Spell Trouble for Republicans in 2024
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. I figured at this point it would be old news, but...
Merger Creates Internet Company Serving Rural Areas in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma
Two Internet service providers are merging to cover a larger area of Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, but an expert in community broadband networks cautions that consolidation can often hurt customer service. The two former companies – 360 Communications of Durant, Oklahoma, and 903 Broadband of Leonard, Texas – were roughly...
The Beaver State of Mind
Oregon’s state flag features a beaver on its back side in honor of the state’s nickname, “The Beaver State” – a moniker it earned when trapping beavers for the early nineteenth-century fur trade played a large role in the exploration and settlement of a territory that became a state in 1859.
Rural People Don’t Practice Religion More than their Urban Counterparts, Survey Shows
The notion of a hyper-religious rural America, one that stands in direct contrast to a modern and secularizing urban America, is pervasive. But the numbers just don’t support that stereotype. Factors like income, race, partisanship, age, and education influence religious attendance more than geography does. During my first semester...
Virginia Tech Scholars Look for Diverse Personal Stories That Discuss Queer Identities and Rural Education
Clint Whitten and Amy Price Azano, Ph.D, from the Center for Rural Education at Virginia Tech are calling for abstract proposals for their upcoming book, Rural & (Out)Rooted: Exploring the Intersection of Rural Education and Queer Identities. The pair are looking for submissions from a broad array of people, including...
Colorado’s Creative Districts Help Boost Economy, Creatively Tackle Other Problems
Twelve costumed burros (donkeys) walked down Grand Avenue in Mancos, Colorado, after participating in an obstacle course competition during the fourth annual Burrofest. The June festival brings together burros and artists to highlight their talents and contributions to the town. Each artist chooses a burro to be their muse and model and creates a representation of “their” animal in the medium of their choice.
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