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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Data portal will help policymakers and lawmakers in Tenn. 'take a deep dive into why certain rural counties struggle'

Sevier County finds a way to keep Great Smoky Mountains National Park open despite government shutdown

Rural communities hit hard by deaths from explosion at ammunition plant in Tennessee

Legendary and loving: Dolly Parton's Dollywood, near her homeplace, shows Americans how to accept one another

TVA must do more to generate clean energy, write energy analyst and former environmental reporter

Small town of Muscle Shoals made Aretha Queen of Soul

Rural areas could be hardest hit by budget cuts and work rules in SNAP, Social Security disability

Guy Carawan, folk singer and civil rights pioneer, died on Saturday at 87 in Tennessee

George Jones, 'the spirit of country,' who did things his way and is compared to Frank Sinatra, dies at 81

Gangs are migrating into rural West Tennessee

Minnie Pearl's hometown paper marks 100th anniversary of her birth, touts statue funding

State legislator says he can't control Topix, sorry

Dolly Parton apologizes to lesbian couple for censorship of gay-marriage T-shirt at her park

International Storytelling Center is bankrupt

A review: Get Low, an homage to the rural South

Tennessee is national hotbed of animal rescues

One writer sees end of traditional country music, another says Swift brings young people back to it

Town idol's move causing uproar in Tennessee

Knoxville photojournalist Clay Owen dies at 47

Cracker Barrel returns to original corporate name