The landscape of recovery in rural America is “a story of small victories and people who won’t give up on their neighbors.”
Posted inTribal Affairs
Medicaid Unwinding Deals Blow to Tenuous System of Care for Native Americans
This story was originally published by KFF Health News. About a year into the process of redetermining Medicaid eligibility after the Covid-19 public health emergency, more than 20 million people have been kicked off the joint federal-state program for low-income families. A chorus of stories recount the ways the unwinding has upended people’s lives, but […]
Posted inMedia
Broken Promises and ‘Broken Justice’ in the Rust Belt
“American Rust” offers a portrait of post-industrial towns that some might dismiss as “misery porn,” but there are flickers of hope and intrigue amid the gloom.
Posted inArts and Culture
State Poet Laureates Write Rural Into Their Rhyme Schemes
Recently, Barbara Smith’s son Jason was playing a game of pool with his buddies in Wyoming when he abruptly left the game to attend his mother’s poetry reading. “The other men came with him and they were surprised and I think happy to be there,” Smith recalls. “I don’t think they had been at a […]
Posted inWorld
‘Society of the Snow’ Shows Us How Far We’ll Go to Survive
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. Stripped of our most basic needs — water, food, shelter — people become barbaric and inhumane, or at least that’s […]
Posted inJustice
Rural Victims of Intimate-Partner Violence Need More Resources and Support, Study Finds
While intimate-partner violence is a problem in all areas of the country, victims in rural communities need more resources and support, a new study has found. The study from the University of Minnesota’ Rural Health Research Center found that rural victims of intimate-partner violence, or IPV, face more barriers and resource limitations that could affect […]
Posted inAgriculture
Can a Farm Generate Solar Power and Blueberries at Once?
This story was originally published by the Maine Monitor. Paul Sweetland brings a bucket-like object with him to work on a blueberry farm in Rockport — not to collect Maine’s hallmark fruit, but to protect his head. That’s because this farm is a little unusual: Looming over the narrow rows of wild blueberries are 8-foot-tall […]
Posted inEducation
Seven Community Colleges Selected for National Program to Improve Student Experience
The small community of Spindale in western North Carolina and the surrounding area was once known for its textile mills, offering generations of families a way to create a solid life for more than 100 years. Now, however, the area is home to more medium-sized companies in industries like healthcare and small business ventures, said […]
Posted inEducation
Unlicensed Teachers Now Dominate New Teacher Hires in Rural Texas Schools
This story was originally published by the Conversation. The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015 eliminated the federal requirement that teachers be highly qualified to teach. This regulatory freedom, combined with a shortage of trained and qualified teachers, has led some states to allow unqualified people to teach children. Texas used this freedom to adopt […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Review: ‘Huckleberry Finn’ Retelling Wrestles With Writing, and Righting, Historical Wrongs
“If one knows hell as home,” Percival Everett’s Jim asks, “Is returning to hell a homecoming?” Everett’s novel James, a retelling of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, places Jim at the middle of the narrative, just as it tears the story apart from the center. In the original, Jim is a runaway slave and erstwhile companion […]
Posted inHousing
Q&A: Community Organizing in Rural South Texas
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. […]