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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264 of 304 persistent high-poverty counties are rural: Black Belt, Delta, Appalachia, Ozarks, Rio Grande, Native lands

First African American nominated to head Delta authority

Major towns in Arkansas' part of the Mississippi Delta fight to reverse decline, demonstrated by loss of population

Quick hits: Photo book follows Mississippi R.: coal-ash ponds reprieved; USDA rural opportunity agency proposed

Residents in town of 300, without public water for over a year, getting it after investigative reporter sounds alarm

County-level interactive map shows rural population increasing, after declining in each of the last six years

Delta authority's new boss says he's cut overhead expenses and will send communities the money

Delta Regional Authority creates fund to address emergency infrastructure needs in 8-state region

USDA announces $401M for 26 projects to reduce rural poverty in nation's poorest communities

Child poverty has gotten more rural in last 30 years

Ruralites less likely to be screened for cancers of private parts, thus more likely to die from them

Rural counties, mostly in South, have higher rates of colon cancer deaths

Feds create small program to promote local food

Organizations use Promise Neighborhood grants to improve education in distressed communities

Mississippi Delta's population keeps falling, dramatically in several counties

Clinton tells Delta allies good policy needed for rural growth; easier to avoid partisanship at local level

Tourists in Miss. can sleep in plantation shacks

Community newspaper in Kentucky tackles poverty in a series that it says will last all year

The Box Project celebrates its 50th year of personal outreach to those in rural poverty all across the U.S.

Mississippi Delta doctor frustrated by state's resistance to health-care reform