Poverty rates are higher in rural America than they are in the cities. Only one in 20 urban counties has a poverty rate above 20 percent. For remote rural counties, the ratio is one in five. The counties that have been poor over a period of decades are overwhelmingly rural, writes Oregon State economist Monica […]
Posted inArts and Culture, People to Know
Speak Your Piece: Remembering The War, Remembering Dad
Walter Marcum, a crack shot when he was 90. Ken Burns’ The War documentary series about World War II on public broadcasting stations is igniting emotions in the sons and daughters of veterans of that war that perhaps have never before been touched. I speak from personal experience. My father, Walter Marcum, who died two […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Rez Vignettes: The Friendly Warfare of the Handgame
The Indian hand game is a centuries old guessing game that is still hugely popular among Native Americans. Sometimes called stick or moccasin games, the mental guessing game of intense concentration consumes teams of college and high school students and elders alike across Indian country. The slideshow above has eleven photographs of handgame contests. Click […]
Posted inAgriculture
Speak Your Piece: Tag EVERY Animal?
Sharon Zecchinelli’s hogs, Pork and Chop, would have to be individually tagged.Photo:Vince Zecchinelli As my friends and I rode our horses the other day in the Cold Hollow Mountains of Vermont, I tried to savor the moment. Besides hearing the grunt of a moose, whose retreating tracks we saw on the ride back down the […]
Posted inAgriculture, Politics and Government
Letter From Langdon: Lobbyist — and Patriot — for a Day
The U.S. Constitution. Photo: wmwrose After a layover in the City of Brotherly Love, I’m on my way home. I feel a bit of a glow. As I write this, I’m sitting in the airport in Philadelphia. Although I got a quick look out the window of the plane on the way in, it didn’t […]
Posted inFood, Travel/Recreation
Sunday Dinner: 2 Wheels and Illinois Hospitality
On Sunday at Ed and Lynn’s house in Roanoke, Illinois, there’s white bean and tomato bruschetta for two California travelersPhoto: Dusty Davis From San Luis Obispo, California, to Roanoke, Illinois, is a little over 2100 miles, east through Denver and Des Moines — “31 hours, 12 minutes” according to mapquest. But Dusty Davis doesn’t go […]
Posted inRural Economy
Yonder 40 Rises as the Southern Co. Laments the Lack of Florida Sun
Stocks rose last week, thankful for a half-point drop in interest rates granted by the Federal Reserve Bank, and the Yonder 40 went along for the ride. The Daily Yonder’s index of 40 stocks representing the rural economy rose a smidgen over two percent last week. The Dow Industrials and the much larger Standard and […]
Posted inGrowth and Development, Politics and Government
‘What’s Rural?’ Becomes A Farm Bill Question
What’s rural? Provincetown, Mass., received rural development money.Photo: Allogist A seemingly innocuous provision in the House version of the farm bill asking the Secretary of Agriculture to define what’s rural has set off a furor on Capitol Hill. One rural advocacy group described the provision as a “time bomb�? that could strip counties of rural […]
Posted inGrowth and Development, Politics and Government
Versions of ‘Rural’ in California
“Rural” for purposes if federal funding is now defined many ways. Federal programs are tied to various population categories and differing criteria at a number of federal agencies. The maps below show some of the many different ways that “rural” is designated in California. To find maps like these of your state, go here. I. […]
Posted inHealth
Death by Prescription in Rural America
Data: Virginia State Medical Examiner Graphic: Roanoke Times “This is a public health epidemic,” Dr. Martha Wunsch of Blacksburg, Virginia, told Laurence Hammack of the Roanoke Times. Dr. Wunsch, an addiction expert, was describing the huge increases in drug overdose fatalities in Western Virginia, where last year more people died of accidental ODs than in […]