States are beginning to receive hundreds of millions from a new $50 billion federal rural health program, but lawmakers and health groups are challenging how the money will be spent.
Thousands of county officials came to Washington, D.C., to make the case with Congress that funding counties directly is the best way to improve lives across the country’s diverse rural and urban communities.
There are some delightful, lively small towns, but let the numbers do the talking: In Illinois, downstaters and their city “cousins” live in different worlds of expectations and aspirations.
The nation currently has more than 1,000 federally designated primary care shortage areas. More than 180 areas have had a primary care shortage for at least 40 years.
Tens of billions in federal funds are on the way to spread high-speed Internet across the countryside. States should structure their grant programs to make sure markets are competitive.
The Ogallala Aquifer, which spans eight states along the Great Plains, is the only reliable water source for parts of its region. Farmers have pumped its groundwater for decades and, as it dwindles, rural towns need to preserve their sole water source.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education finds little to no learning loss after the switch to a four-day week.
Idaho ranked last in the country for physicians per capita before the pandemic and the doctor shortages and an aging workforce have only worsened the situation.
‘Are we going to revert back to “normal?” No, we will have a new normal.’
Homeownership is more common in rural areas, but the rental market can be tight, especially for lower-income families. A new report from the Housing Assistance Council analyzes the central role of housing in community resilience.
Traumatic injury is the top killer of children and adults under the age of 45, claiming a life approximately every three-and-a-half minutes. Five states in the West have no Level I trauma centers; three other states have just one or two.
Two Native American communities have received 2023 Culture of Health awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Their work is rooted in reviving practices outside forces had disrupted.
The state has completed all but one of eight bureaucratic requirements to award rural broadband construction contracts. Some experts expect nearly every household and business in the state to have an Internet connection by 2028.
On Oct. 20, Navigator CO2 announced that it would abandon its plan to send a $3.4 billion carbon dioxide pipeline through five states. But the company is still pursuing carbon storage projects in central Illinois.
Households in rural areas that earn less than $60,000 for a family of four can receive up to $75 per month for a broadband subsidy, but if those funds run out, many homes will be unable to afford continued Internet connection.
Dissident counties are joining quixotic efforts to secede from their states in much of the country. They’re a manifestation of real political resentments and a way to attract some attention.
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