Rural
Hundreds of thousands of parents died from drugs. Their kids need more help, advocates say.
Every day, 8-year-old Emma sits in a small garden outside her grandmother’s home in Salem, Ohio, writing letters to her mom and sometimes singing songs her mother used to sing to her. Emma’s mom, Danielle Stanley, died of an overdose last year. She was 34, and had struggled with addiction since she was a teenager, […]
The rural Americans too poor for federal flood protections
This story was produced through a collaboration between the Daily Yonder, which covers rural America, and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and news group. On the day he would become homeless, Wesley Bryant was awoken by his wife, Alexis. “Get up,” she told him. “There’s a flood outside.” It was 8 a.m. on a Thursday […]
Federal government pays $2 billion for farmer discrimination
Tens of thousands of farmers or would-be farmers who say they suffered discrimination when they applied for assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will get one-time payments that total about $2 billion from the federal government. “While this financial assistance is not compensation for anyone’s losses or pain endured, it is an acknowledgement,” U.S. […]
Beshear promises better times for ravaged region on flood’s second anniversary
WAYLAND, Ky. – Gov. Andy Beshear promised a different future for Eastern Kentucky as he made five stops in the region Friday to signal the weekend’s second anniversary of record floods on the night of July 27-28, 2022. In the little Floyd County town of Wayland, Beshear dedicated 11 homes that he said would be […]
Dollar stores’ entry into rural communities adds to rural grocery challenges, says USDA study
The influx of dollar stores into the rural landscape can have a devastating effect on grocery stores and other small businesses in rural areas, research has found. When dollar stores move into a rural area, independent grocery stores are more likely to close, says a new study released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). […]
Qualifying UK medical students in rural provider program to get scholarships
The University of Kentucky College of Medicine and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Medicaid in Kentucky are giving medical students on a path to serve rural areas seven scholarships worth $100,000 in total.? Fourth year students in UK’s Rural Physician Leadership Program will benefit from this money, UK said. They need to demonstrate financial […]
Food insecurity increased faster in rural areas than urban ones last year
The percentage of rural households experiencing food insecurity grew by 4 points in 2022 to 15%. Metropolitan households experiencing food insecurity grew by 2 points to 12%. The rate of increase was nearly two-thirds greater in rural areas than in metropolitan ones, according to data from Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). The increase was expected […]
Rural voters shift toward Democrat in Kentucky governor’s race
Rural voters were part of a statewide shift toward incumbent Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear this week, helping give the Democrat a 5-point election victory in a state that Donald Trump won by over 25 points three years ago. Beshear won the statewide vote 52.5% to 47.5%, a comfortable margin compared to his 2019 election victory […]
Film series captures Black communities, struggles, solidarity across Kentucky
Sherman Neal spent many days of the summer of 2020 in the Western Kentucky college town of Murray next to a Confederate monument at the county courthouse.? It was on the heels of the murder of George Floyd and the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor when Neal — a Black volunteer college football coach, […]
Funding for 33 rural broadband projects unveiled by USDA
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Monday announced it will send $714 million to help rural areas in 19 states connect to the internet. “The president honestly believes that in order to have the fullest opportunity available to bring manufacturing back, to bring precision agriculture, to reconnect young people to economic opportunity in rural places, […]
Plans advance for rebuilding flood-prone Kentucky communities on ‘higher ground’
The state has hired two engineering firms to plan and develop housing at two Eastern Kentucky sites for survivors from last summer’s devastating floods. Both are on former surface mines, and Gov. Andy Beshear indicated that others could be announced soon. Beshear said last week that H.A. Spalding Engineers of Hazard will design infrastructure, including […]
Kentuckians lacked forecasting, broadband as July storms quickly swelled into deadly flood
This story is a collaboration between The Daily Yonder and Grist. For more, watch the Daily Yonder’s video “How Broadband and Weather Forecasting Failed East Kentucky.”? Terry Thies wasn’t worried about the rain that pounded on her roof last July.? She had received no flood warnings before going to sleep that night. Besides, her part […]