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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Mega merger would create first coast-to-coast rail company in U.S.; farming and manufacturing sectors voice concerns

U.S. DOJ begins investigating reasons behind high egg prices, and bird flu may not be the only culprit

As egg prices continue to climb, one U.S. egg producer reports an 82% increase in revenues. What's going on?

Kroger-Albertsons merger blocked by judge who sided with Federal Trade Commission's anti-trust argument

Hospital monopoly in Appalachia doesn't meet benchmarks; some residents say they're scared to seek care

Grocery store chains still use 'old-school' spying to out-price competitors. The practice has piqued antitrust interests.

FCC tug-of-war over 'net neutrality' is back; having only 'one game in town' is harder on rural areas

Some farm groups object to proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons, saying a bigger grocer will hurt small farmers

Why are grocery prices remaining so high? Time to dust off an old law and support fair competition, writer argues

K.C. Star investigation lays out the dangers of railroads and their unwillingness to fix things without taxpayer money

Proponents of journalism-competition bill still voice hope; others say it's probably dead, prefer tax-credit idea

Journalism Competition and Preservation Act won't be in must-pass defense bill after all

Journalism Competition and Preservation Act is added to must-pass defense bill; Facebook threatens to drop news

Senate panel sends Journalism Preservation Act to the floor; House committee could act on similar bill next week

Bill to force tech giants to pay for news content is moving

Mega-merger of poultry processors is proceeding, despite anti-trust concerns; processors ask producers to back it

Chicken processors to pay farmers $85 million in antitrust settlement, scrap pay system called abusive and opaque

House passes bills on meatpacking, fertilizer and biofuels; meat measure up for vote in Senate Agriculture Committee

Revamped bill would give small news outlets more power in negotiating compensation from Google, Facebook

Justice Department probes whether chicken processors shared plant-worker pay data in order to keep wages low