For rural residents, carrying around a dose of naloxone should be as common as learning first aid, an addiction doctor says. Dr. Mark Calarco, national medical director for clinical diagnostics at the American Addiction Centers in Brentwood, Tennessee, argues that having naloxone isn’t just for people taking opioids and their family and friends – it’s […]
Posted inEnergy
In Slumping Energy States, Plugging Abandoned Wells Could Provide an Economic Boost
This article was produced by Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. It’s rare for Tom Brooks to say no to work. Which is why, in the middle of a pandemic and a worldwide slump in oil prices, Brooks mustered up a crew to plug a 42-year-old oil well for the state of North Dakota. […]
Posted inCoronavirus
Red-Zone Report: New Rural Infections Jump 30% in Last Week
Full page map The number of new Covid-19 infections in rural America jumped by 30% last week, reversing a short-lived decline in new cases and putting a record number of rural counties on the red-zone list. New deaths from Covid-19 also grew last week, increasing by 20% and bringing the total number of rural Americans […]
Posted inRace Relations
Push for Racial Justice Creates Momentum to Protect Black-Owned Land
This article was produced by Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. In May, three sisters in Chicago got a surprise phone call: They owned 35 acres in Mississippi with a stand of mature timber worth more than $40,000. “They’d never been to Louisville, Mississippi, so they had no idea they owned property,” recalled Frank […]
Posted inHealth
Rural Hospitals Without Obstetrics Units Worry About Emergency Births
When labor begins, a baby doesn’t care whether the local hospital has closed its obstetrics unit. Women in emergencies who can’t make it to the nearest maternity ward may have to use the local ER. The staff at such rural hospitals worry that lack of training, experience, and equipment could hurt their chances of managing […]
Posted inBroadband and Technology
Rural North Carolina Families Struggle With Online Access for School-Age Children
This story was originally published by Carolina Public Press. When school started in Beaufort County in August, Chocowinity resident Dana Heath Darden’s sons signed onto remote classes using school-issued Chromebooks and hot spot routers. The Dardens don’t have Wi-Fi because it’s prohibitively expensive for the family, so the hot spot was supposed to help the kids […]
Posted inPolitics and Government
Commentary: Census 2020 Exposes Deep Digital Divide and Reinforces Need for Paper Options
This story was originally published by Keep Me Posted North America Census 2020 is not going well. Nor is it going as planned. This critical distinction has been amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic, which again exposes the depth and breadth of the digital divide in America. Popular narratives about the digital divide that separates our […]
Posted inRural Voters
Radically Rural: Art as an Amplifier for Community Connection
While the saying goes, “Life is not a dress rehearsal,” the arts provide a place to play out possible scenarios for real life. “The arts are operating very much that way right now,” said Barbara Shafer Bacon, co-director of Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts. Her organization serves more than 6,000 individuals […]
Posted inGrowth and Development
Despite Pandemic Challenges, a Colorado Group Is Connecting Rural Entrepreneurs to Resources They Need
What ties quirky mountain towns in Colorado to the state’s larger cities is more than just the Front Range, an approximately 300-mile stretch of mountain peaks with some rising over 10,000 feet above the Great Plains. In fact, what connects Durango in the southwest part of the state to Sterling in the northeast is a spirit […]
Posted inCoronavirus
Opinion: Dear People Who Refuse to Wear Masks, Who Party on Crowded Beaches, Who Think Testing Is Stupid…
On September 2, 2020, after more than two weeks on a ventilator, Elaine Purkey died, in a hospital in Charleston, West Virginia. She shouldn’t have died of Covid-19 A musician, an activist, a supporter of union coal miners, Elaine Purkey was a West Virginia treasure. She performed all over the country, including on the National […]