Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.
As black-lung cases increase, federal funding has fallen sharply for a program that helps care for those with the disease, Joe Davidson writes for The Washington Post.
Though the nationwide unemployment rate is low, lost manufacturing jobs mean rural Tennessee hasn't recovered from the Great Recession as well as urban areas have, economics student and rural policy researcher John Casey writes in an op-ed for The Tennessean.
Nearly 40 news media publications co-signed a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, protesting a new rule that gives EPA more power to refuse requests for information made under the Freedom of Information Act, Miranda Green reports for The Hill.
A new study suggests that free-trade policy plays a role in opioid-overdose deaths, Chuck Dinerstein reports for the American Council on Science and Health: "Free trade shifts the manufacture of goods to the cheapest supplier . . .trade-related job loss closes factories, eliminates middle-class jobs, and, as it turns out, disproportionately impacts those regions in the U.S. most burdened by opioids’ disruption. The displaced workers, often less-educated, have only short term unemployment benefits for what has become a long term problem. There is also evidence that one way to make ends meet, is to apply for disability benefits; benefits that require a medical examination and are associated with a greater likelihood of being prescribed opioids. That argument aside, the researchers feel that trade-related job loss has two additional impacts. It eliminates manufacturing jobs that pay relatively well; the closing of local factors ripples through the community and affects not only the directly employed but those that are working in support of the lost jobs, like luncheonettes, grocery stores, the local retail community that gives regions an economic and cultural life. Finally, manufacturing jobs are labor-intensive, they cause aches and pains often treated, rightly or wrongly, with opioids – with no source of income and a medication 'habit,' illicit drugs are a convenient substitute."
Though the nationwide unemployment rate is low, lost manufacturing jobs mean rural Tennessee hasn't recovered from the Great Recession as well as urban areas have, economics student and rural policy researcher John Casey writes in an op-ed for The Tennessean.
Nearly 40 news media publications co-signed a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, protesting a new rule that gives EPA more power to refuse requests for information made under the Freedom of Information Act, Miranda Green reports for The Hill.
A new study suggests that free-trade policy plays a role in opioid-overdose deaths, Chuck Dinerstein reports for the American Council on Science and Health: "Free trade shifts the manufacture of goods to the cheapest supplier . . .trade-related job loss closes factories, eliminates middle-class jobs, and, as it turns out, disproportionately impacts those regions in the U.S. most burdened by opioids’ disruption. The displaced workers, often less-educated, have only short term unemployment benefits for what has become a long term problem. There is also evidence that one way to make ends meet, is to apply for disability benefits; benefits that require a medical examination and are associated with a greater likelihood of being prescribed opioids. That argument aside, the researchers feel that trade-related job loss has two additional impacts. It eliminates manufacturing jobs that pay relatively well; the closing of local factors ripples through the community and affects not only the directly employed but those that are working in support of the lost jobs, like luncheonettes, grocery stores, the local retail community that gives regions an economic and cultural life. Finally, manufacturing jobs are labor-intensive, they cause aches and pains often treated, rightly or wrongly, with opioids – with no source of income and a medication 'habit,' illicit drugs are a convenient substitute."
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