A growing company pins its success on rural workers who have 'grit, grind. . . and aptitude.'

The Provalus website boasts about the company's commitment to "revitalizing historically underutilized business zones in rural downtown communities." (Provalus graphic)

Instead of outsourcing work to other countries, big-business service partner Provalus establishes offices in rural towns in the U.S., where it "finds people who are eager for jobs that will teach them 21st-century skills but who have few opportunities," reports Lauren Weber of The Wall Street Journal. The company's unusual playbook could become a "model for creating jobs in often-overlooked pockets of the country."

Provalus provides insurance-claims processing, cybersecurity, IT help desk coverage and other services to larger companies that need additional support. The company is intentionally expanding into rural America, where it works to identify potential employees with aptitude rather than requiring years of experience.

Chuck Ruggiero, the company's founder, told Weber, "There is an untapped labor market in rural America. They have the grit, the grind, and many have the aptitude."

The company's fourth location in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, which opened in 2022, is an example of an area that aligns with the niche demographics Provalus seeks out. Weber explains, "No major highways or railroads run through Tahlequah. The 16,000-person town in northeastern Oklahoma has a poverty rate of 20.3%. . . . The average individual income hovers around $30,000."

As an employer, Provalus competes with area retailers and restaurants for workers and pay usually starts around $13 to $14 per hour. But unlike many hourly jobs, the "wage potential at Provalus is high for some, and the benefits package is generous," Weber reports. "Health insurance costs $1 per paycheck. For the first six months, employees receive scheduled raises every 60 days."

Provalus clients such as Chick-fil-A and the Navy Federal Credit Union have signed up, at least in part, because they like the company's commitment to rural American workers. Weber adds, "They also reap the benefits of onshore services: Time zones line up, data is easier to protect, and site visits don’t require overnight flights."

U.S. sugar farmers take a beating as price per ton tanks

A truck unloads sugar beets. (Red River Valley Sugarbeet 
Growers Association photo)

U.S. soybean and corn farmers aren't the only ones taking a beating in this year's agriculture market. Sugar beet farmers will also see abysmal payments for their record 2025 crop, report Jenny Schlecht and Kjersti Maday of AgWeek.

American Crystal Sugar announced it will pay farmers $43.85 per ton for its record 2025 crop, a "far cry from the $78 it paid last year or the $83.18 it paid for the 2023 crop," Schlecht writes.

The Minnesota-based sugar cooperative explained the lower prices, saying "net sugarbeet payments per ton for 2025 will be far less than payments in recent years due to low sugar prices blamed on sugar dumping by companies that heavily subsidize their sugar crops," AgWeek reports.

Sugar beets are white-rooted.
 (Merriam-Webster drawing)

Sugar beet growers, like other American farmers, have faced high input costs for labor, fertilizer and machinery. They are also grappling with less demand. Demand is down about 4% from a high several years ago, according to the article. Inflation, shifts in the American and even changes in SNAP allowances can all be contributors to less demand.

But Tom Astrup, the president and CEO of American Crystal Sugar, said price worries are the "greatest threat to the sugar industry since Mexican sugar dumping more than a decade ago," Schlecht explains. "The industry has been 'hammered' by the imports of world sugar, which Astrup said the Department of Agriculture has lost control of. That, he said, has led to the highest stocks of sugar in the U.S. in 25 years."

Forever chemicals in drinking water are a national problem, but smaller communities face the biggest challenge

Minnesota lawmakers learn about technology to remove PFAS.
(Photo by Tad Johnson, Dakota Tribune)

The costs of removing forever chemicals, or PFAS, from municipal water could leave smaller communities behind. Most rural utilities don't have a PFAS contaminant filtration system, nor can they afford one, a 2025 study found. "Small, rural communities are the least likely to have the advanced systems in place," reports Brian Bienkowski for The New Lede.

The technology to remove the long-lasting, human-made "forever chemicals" found in many commercial and industrial products that have been linked to a range of health risks, including several types of cancer, fertility issues and developmental delays in children, can cost millions of dollars to purchase and install.

Even smaller cities are struggling to cover the costs to remove forever chemicals. In Apple Valley, Minnesota, some of the expenses utilities are paying to bring PFAS levels in their drinking water into compliance with Environmental Protection Agency rules will "likely hike water rates [customers pay] to fund a $100 million project to rid its wells of PFAS," reports Eva Herscowitz of the Minnesota Star Tribune.

To help buffer the costs, Apply Valley is asking its legislature to "include $40 million in the 2026 bonding bill for the project that would add membrane filter technology, which would increase the treatment plant’s capacity from 18 million gallons per day to 20 MGD," reports Tad Johnson of Thisweek Dakota County Tribune.

Like many rural areas with higher levels of PFAS contaminants, Apple Valley can't trace the source of its forever chemicals, which has allowed some communities to tap lawsuit dollars from companies such as 3M that were found responsible for tainting regional wells.

The Environmental Study Group found that "just 8% of U.S. water systems are equipped with filters that can remove PFAS. And 98% of systems that have PFAS detections do not have treatment targeting the chemicals."

Dan Hartnett, the chief policy officer at the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, cited a report that "estimated annual household cost to pay for the advanced treatment methods would average an additional $230 per household per year," Bienkowski writes. Hartnett added, “The numbers were significantly higher for the smallest water systems."

Even though more rural high schoolers graduate than their urban peers, fewer go on to college. Why?

Rural high school students might not have access to the same 
technology as their urban peers. (iStock photo via The Conversation CC)

In 2020, nearly 90% of rural high school students earned their diplomas, compared with 82% in urban areas. And yet, urban students remain more likely to attend college. Several factors, including a lack of college recruitment in rural areas, explain the disparity, writes Sheneka Williams, an education professor at Michigan State University, for The Conversation.

Being the first one to attend college is a tough choice -- especially if no one's encouraging students to consider it. "If these universities don’t know you exist, and if your parents haven’t gone to college and don’t know how the admission system works, you might not have help as you move closer to attending college," Williams explains. "Some rural schools also do not have college counselors."

Teacher shortages in STEM subjects are particularly tough for rural schools to overcome. Williams explains, "This lack of science course offerings can create a whole block of students who are not going to college."

Another educational drawback to living in more remote pockets of the U.S. is that it is more time-consuming and expensive for college recruiters to get students who might be considering college. Williams adds, "I think the narrative around rural students and college needs to shift – these students may want to go to college, but nobody is looking for them."

The STARS College Network is one group that has been successful in engaging rural students with colleges, but more outreach is needed.

What does it mean when cuts from the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' close a rural town's only health care clinic?

The OBBBA cuts billions in federal spending on rural
health care over the next 10 years. (Wikipedia photo)

After the only health care clinic in rural Churchville, Virginia, closed, residents in this 200-person community are struggling to adjust.

"Gone are the days of seniors walking down the road from their house to see the town doctor," reports Eva McKend of CNN News. "Augusta Medical Group cited the health care provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for closing the rural clinics in Churchville and two other locations."

Even when the clinic's closure means some residents have to drive an hour to Charlottesville to see doctors, community members are reluctant to say anything negative about President Trump or his signature OBBBA legislation.

Across from the town's coffee shop, and just a few feet away from the shuttered clinic, a bold banner waves with the words "Thank you, TRUMP, Save America Again."

Democrats are planning to make health care a "defining issue nationally in next year’s midterms," McKend writes. "But the environment in Churchville illustrates the challenges the party faces, particularly in rural communities."

Dale White, a Churchville resident and church administrator, says the "concerns about the clinic are overblown," McKend writes. White told her, "These are old-time rural farming folks, and they’ve been going to get medical care in Staunton and Fishersville, Waynesboro and Charlottesville since they can remember."

Many rural hospitals, clinics and providers that serve Medicaid patients were struggling to stay afloat before the OBBBA cuts. McKend reports, "The policy research organization KFF estimates that Trump’s bill will cut federal Medicaid spending in rural communities by $137 billion over the next decade."

A rural hospital in California closes after federal officials strip 'critical access' designation it has held since 2000

Glenn Medical Center in Willows, California 
(Glenn Medical Center photo)

After more than 70 years of serving its rural community in Willows, California, Glenn Medical Center closed its doors following the loss of its "critical access" designation, which had allowed the hospital to receive higher federal reimbursements that helped it remain open.

To qualify as a "critical access" hospital, a medical center needs to be at least 35 miles from the next closest hospital. Glenn Medical Center was 32 miles from "the nearest neighboring hospital under a route mapped by federal officials," reports Jessica Garrison of the L.A. Times. "Though that distance hasn’t changed, the federal government has now decided to enforce its rules." The hospital was awarded its critical access status in 2000.

The loss of Glenn Medical Center leaves the surrounding farming community without emergency care, "eliminates 150 jobs and puts rural residents at risk of preventable deaths," Garrison writes.

Rural hospitals across the state are already at risk of closure. Peggy Wheeler, vice president of policy of the California Hospital Association, told Garrison, "It’s like the beginning of a tidal wave. I’m concerned we will lose several rural hospitals, and then the whole system may be at risk.”

Before Glenn Medical Center's designation was stripped, Glenn County officials and hospital administrators worked for months to persuade federal officials to grant an exception.

Now that the hospital is closed, many community members fear what will happen to older residents in need of immediate care, injured farm workers or victims of car accidents along nearby Interstate 5. Glenn County Supervisor Monica Rossman told Garrison, "People are going to die."

Federal funding cuts, decreased use and a sluggish U.S. economy will cost some rural towns their libraries

The Tieton Library will close later this month, leaving the town's 
1,610 residents without a library for the first time since 1946.

Libraries in rural towns provide residents with a safe community hub that offers educational materials, meeting space, and sometimes even a place to escape inclement weather. But federal budget cuts, a slowing economy and demographic changes are forcing some small-town libraries to close.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order "dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which has provided around $270 million a year to public and academic libraries," reports Anna Griffin of The New York Times. Without those federal dollars, some libraries in smaller communities won't have enough funding to remain open.

While Trump's executive order faces a court challenge, some smaller libraries are already scaling back. "Some rural libraries in Florida and Mississippi, for example, have frozen inter-library loan programs, sharply reducing the range of materials available to residents in more remote areas," Griffin writes. "State libraries in Maine, Indiana, Connecticut and Washington have laid off staff members or warned that layoffs were coming."

While most U.S. library systems rely on federal and state funding and already operate within tight budgets, smaller libraries with a more limited tax base have a harder time raising funds to cover shortfalls. 

The Yakima library district in Washington state, which serves rural farming towns, is an example of a system that had to make changes to remain solvent. District leaders have already announced an increase in fees to maintain services. The fee changes, along with looming state and federal funding cuts, have already pushed a Yakima library in Tieton to schedule its closure for later this month.

Kate Laughlin, executive director of the Association for Rural & Small Libraries, told Griffin, "We had a financial model that wasn’t all that sustainable even before this administration. What you are seeing in a place like Yakima County is the start, not the end."

Democrats announce plan to 'win over voters in rural areas.'

It could take years for Democrats to see rural voter
 gains. (Adobe Stock photo)

In a bid to change its relationship with rural voters, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced a first-of-its-kind investment to "win over voters in rural areas — where the party has suffered deep losses in recent elections — in their effort to win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives next year," reports Ashley Lopez of NPR.

Committee members see the U.S. economy as a topic they can use to engage Trump-supporting and leaning rural voters by showing that Democrats have something better to offer.

Suzan DelBene, who chairs the DCCC, told Lopez, "I think Republicans are turning their back. They've been actively hurting rural communities with the policies they've put in place."

Anthony Flaccavento, co-founder and executive director of the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative, said "economic frustration among most voters could provide an opening for Democrats, and that rural voters tend to align with economically populist policies," Lopez explains.

While Democrats plan their eight-figure investment to make inroads with rural American voters through targeted campaigns and staff focused on rural issues, it's impossible to predict whether they will be able to generate a meaningful shift in rural opinion in the near future.

Lopez reports, "Flaccavento said winning back at least a slice of those rural voters is likely to be 'hard as hell' for Democrats. But, he said, it's a problem the party needs to confront head-on." Flaccavento is pushing for Democrats to make long-term investments in rural races over the next decade, not just the next couple of election cycles. 

Opinion: Virtual cattle fencing offers a multiple-benefit solution for ranchers and helps migrating wildlife

Ranchers can easily move herd grazing lands with an app. 
(NoFence photo)

Western ranches in the United States include thousands of miles of barbed wire fencing, which has both positive and negative effects. GPS fencing could help ranchers strike a healthier balance while cutting business costs, writes Bruce M. Beehler in his opinion for The Washington Post.

Rangeland fencing is "an important tool for managing herds, rotating grazing areas, protecting environmentally sensitive wetlands and stream corridors, and keeping cows off highways," Beehler points out. "But it’s also harmful to wildlife populations, including deer, pronghorn, bighorn sheep and elk, as well as game birds such as the greater sage-grouse."

The idea behind GPS-based virtual fences is similar to "Invisible Fence," which uses buried wire to keep dogs in their yards. Similarly, virtual cattle fencing "uses GPS, cellular technology and a mapping app that allows ranchers to draw cow-proof fence lines on their computer or tablet," Beehler explains.

While the new system requires an initial investment in collars and cell service to install, Beehler believes it offers ranchers enough benefits to justify the initial price tag. For one, they won't have to repair nearly as much fencing, which is time-consuming and expensive for farmers and tax payers. 

For wildlife, removing barbed wire fencing from migration corridors will prevent animal suffering and death. Beehler adds, "One study in Montana found that, on average, one wild ungulate got tangled in fencing every 2.5 miles of fencing per year."

While the system is designed to keep herds within designated grazing lands, it offers a huge secondary benefit. Beehler writes, "With a glimpse at the mapping app, ranchers can see the exact location of every one of their cows in real time."

Virtual fencing collars could be replaced with ear tags.
(Photo by Chad Boyd via USDA)

Virtual fencing won't replace all physical fencing, "especially along highways and to keep bulls from wandering into a neighboring herd," Beehler explains. 

But for every mile of barbed wire that virtual fencing replaces "costs will decline. . . and as a result the annual cost of maintaining a herd will fall, increasing profit margins," Beehler adds.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture offers more insight on virtual fencing benefits for farmers, the environment and wildlife here. 

Higher energy prices and older residences mean more rural residents will struggle to stay warm this winter

Many rural residents will struggle to afford heat this winter. 
(Photo by Nadine Marfurt, Unsplash)

Rural residents can struggle to pay their utility bills during the winter months because they face barriers to conserving heat, such as living in older homes or apartments that can be drafty and lack energy-saving features. They are also more likely to have limited access to aid programs designed to help Americans afford energy while avoiding utility debt.

Roughly 80 million Americans have trouble paying their monthly heat and electricity bills. "Now, as the cost of energy climbs, experts say more people are at risk of energy insecurity and poverty, defined by the struggle or inability to keep up with electric, heating, and cooling bills," reports Julia Tilton of The Daily Yonder. 

As electricity and gas rates continue to increase across the U.S., the number of rural residents who can't afford their utility bills has soared. "In the South and Appalachia, rates of severe utility debt were nearly twice as high as of June 2025, per analysis from the Century Foundation economic think tank," Tilton reports. "With winter approaching, home heating costs are expected to outpace inflation."

Maria Castillo, a senior associate on the electricity team at energy think tank RMI, told Tilton, "Who we understand as experiencing energy poverty is unfortunately expanding because of the affordability pressures brought on by rising prices and the volatility of gas prices."

While many rural families qualify for federal utility support through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, completing LIHEAP paperwork can prevent rural residents from accessing energy aid.

Katrina Metzler, the executive director for the National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition, told Tilton, "If they’re having trouble affording their utility bills, can they also afford gasoline to get in the car and drive many miles, however many it might be, to reach the office where assistance is available and complete the application?”