Rural

The nation's pandemic hot spots have shifted to rural communities, overwhelming small hospitals that are running out of beds or lack the intensive care units for more than one or two seriously ill patients. And in much of the Midwest... Read More

DENVER — The pandemic hit Colorado’s ski towns first. As spring breakers headed to the slopes, they brought the coronavirus with them. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis shut down the state’s ski resorts in March, triggering a wave of furloughs and... Read More

WASHINGTON - This week the Blue Dog Coalition hosted a roundtable discussion with experts in the K-12, higher and tribal education fields on rural education and workforce development. Blue Dog member Rep. Kendra Horn, D-Okla., moderated the roundtable discussion on... Read More

WASHINGTON — The months leading up to the coronavirus pandemic already spelled trouble for the Rome Water System and the tiny community it serves in the Mississippi Delta. A tornado tossed around several homes, closed roads and left the community... Read More

WASHINGTON - Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y., served as moderator last week at a Blue Dog Coalition forum exploring the issue of mental health and addiction in the U.S. and how to deal with it. Brindisi, the coalition's co-chair, has been... Read More

WASHINGTON - Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., wants to reduce the barriers currently preventing many Rural Utility Service borrowers from refinancing their debt to take advantage of lower market rates. Unlike most private lenders, the Rural Utility Service, a division of... Read More

Rep. Tom O'Halleran, D-Ariz., made a little history on Monday by launching the Blue Dog Democrats' first-ever virtual rural opportunity roundtable series. The discussion with local and tribal leaders focused on the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on rural and... Read More

The furor over the U.S. Postal Service imperils a vital lifeline for the Republican rural base and threatens to damage GOP lawmakers’ reelection bids, potentially even President Donald Trump’s campaign in critical battle grounds. Rural residents are especially dependent on... Read More

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan trio of senators urged their colleagues Tuesday to create a $10 billion fund to extend broadband cable access into underserved rural communities. The Governors' Broadband Development Fund bill was introduced by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and... Read More

WASHINGTON — As the COVID-19 pandemic battered large, metropolitan areas this spring, rural hospitals prepared to be next on the front lines. But in order to ready their facilities for a potential surge in patients, those small hospitals had to... Read More

Challenges faced by residents of rural and underserved communities regarding barriers to health care were analyzed in a report released by the House Ways and Means Committee. The report, entitled “Left Out: Barriers to Health Equity for Rural and Underserved... Read More

When the first coronavirus shutdowns were announced in March, hoteliers in the Appalachian town of Gadsden, Ala., said they did not want to host visitors from other states. So, Hugh Stump, executive director of Greater Gadsden Area Tourism, told them... Read More

Every part of the country will feel the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis. But the small and isolated rural areas that lagged during the economic boom may fare better, relatively speaking, in the aftermath of the pandemic. Those places... Read More

WASHINGTON — If you’re exhibiting coronavirus symptoms and meet the criteria, you should get tested. But if you live in rural Presidio County, on the western end of the Texas-Mexico border, be prepared to travel. County residents who are severely... Read More

Dr. George Pink is a professor who studies rural health, not a doctor who tries to provide it. For the sake of his own blood pressure, he’s grateful. “Not a day doesn’t go by that I don’t thank God I’m... Read More

Kristie Flowers had been sick with the flu for four or five days in July before the 52-year-old registered nurse from Genoa, Colo., acknowledged she needed to go to the ER. At Lincoln Community Hospital, about 10 miles from her... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Hindman Settlement School was founded in 1902 to educate children living in the Central Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky. The school now focuses on helping children with dyslexia, and its leaders propose deploying 40 mentors from AmeriCorps,... Read More

WASHINGTON — Absent action by Congress in the next three weeks, Dr. Michael Waldrum, CEO of Vidant Health, is going to have to figure out what medical services to deny hard-pressed communities in rural eastern North Carolina. “It runs the... Read More

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan trio of House members are fighting to increase mental health care options to address the growing rate of suicide in rural America. Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y., a member of the House Agriculture Committee, led a bipartisan... Read More

Freshman U.S. Representative Deb Haaland, D-N.M., joined U.S. Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., in introducing a climate change bill focused on voluntary farm and ranch conservation practices, massive reforestation, and wetlands restoration.  The lawmakers say the Climate Stewardship Act of 2019... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Thursday that it is repealing an  Obama-era clean water rule that had placed limits on polluting chemicals that could be used near streams, wetlands and other bodies of water. According to the Environmental Protection... Read More

WASHINGTON - A far-reaching broadband connectivity should not be dictated by the location of a home or business, but rather should foster economic growth and sustainable communities by being equally accessible by all. That was the overarching message delivered to... Read More

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Interior Department, in collaboration with the U.S. Education Department and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, will host the first-ever National Tribal Broadband Summit, Sept. 23 and 24 in Washington, D.C. According to the Federal... Read More

HUNTINGDON, Tenn. — The sun is setting just as midwife Sheryl Shafer wraps up a long Thursday on the road visiting families in west Tennessee and Kentucky. She knows the patient on her last stop, a 21-year-old Amish woman in... Read More

North Charleston Police Chief Reggie Burgess knew he had to do something. In 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced South Carolina led the nation in drunk driving fatalities, with 44% of all auto accident deaths involving at least... Read More

SEATTLE — Federal officials said Tuesday they would not block a proposed copper and gold mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay despite objections by critics who contend it would imperil a fishery and harm wetlands and streams. The U.S. Environmental Protection... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Attorneys General from ten states including New York and California filed a lawsuit this week to stop the proposed merger between telecommunications companies T-Mobile and Sprint. In a federal complaint filed in New York on Tuesday, the... Read More

The Federal Communications Commission and Congress have long sought to map specific regions’ access to broadband services in order to help policymakers identify unserved areas. The Broadband Data Improvement Act of 2019, introduced last week in the House of Representatives... Read More

Representatives Joe Cunningham, D-S.C., and Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., co-chairs of the Blue Dog Task Force on Infrastructure and Job Creation, joined with Representatives Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Xochitl Torres Small, D-N.M., their counterparts on the Blue Dog Task Force on... Read More

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., has launched a new House Task Force on Rural Broadband to provide coordination and leadership to end the rural-digital divide. The Task Force will work to advance solutions to ensure all Americans have access... Read More