The Rural Blog

A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, by the Institute for Rural Journalism, based at the University of Kentucky. Links may expire, require subscription or go behind pay walls. Please send news and knowledge you think would be useful to benjy.hamm@uky.edu.

The Rural Blog

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Journalists at rural Alaska newspapers quit over abrupt corporate edits to Kirk story that upset a state politician

Flora & Fauna: Chunk, the Fat Bear Week winner; learning bird songs; deterring wolves; nabbing feral pigs

Fat Bear Week has arrived: Fans can vote daily, and the website provides materials for classrooms

Without federal funding, humanities programs have an uncertain future. Rural places will feel the loss first.

Alaska's rural schools funding requests are often ignored, leaving children in crumbling schools

A historic first in Alaska may mean drilling in an untouched national refuge; Native Alaskans want a 'seat at the table.'

Cherokee Indians get local support for giving Tennessee's highest peak, Clingmans Dome, its original name: Kuwohi

Pandemic roundup: It's deadlier in red states; does their growing health gap with blue states stem from state policy?

Skagway News is thriving online after being sold at start of pandemic; mayor says 'the professionalism is back'

New owners of newspaper in tourist town on Alaska's Inside Passage struggle to survive and thrive during pandemic

Racial, ethnic disparities persist in rural education levels

Aug. 26 webinar to discuss rural maternal and childbirth care disparities, policy recommendations for improving it

Rural residents have harder time acquiring 'Real IDs'

Quick hits: Lyme disease vaccine could be near; owner of small Alaskan newspaper offers to sell it for nothing

Three 'Culture of Health' prize winners are rural; in at least one, the local newspaper did its job and helped out

Farming booms in Alaska, Census of Agriculture shows

Supreme Court says moose hunter can use hovercraft on rivers flowing through federal preserves, but only in Alaska

Escaped rodeo cow evades capture in and around Anchorage

Interior Dept. official who spoke out on Alaskan climate change, and was reassigned, quits

Living in a remote, rural, politically divided town