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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Rivian Automotive forges onward and breaks ground on its $5 billion electric vehicle plant in a small town in Georgia

Drugged driving is difficult to detect, but it impairs drivers and contributes to accidents and fatalities

Quick hits: Racing cars with a 'twist;' egg prices slide; lower tariff for 'happy nut;' bird flu cases slow; PFAS trial

Foreign businesses have replaced textiles in Upstate South Carolina. Residents are 'baffled' and worried by tariffs.

Steel and aluminum tariffs may price the Ford F-150, America's No.1-selling vehicle, out of reach for many people

Rural Tennessee communities want agreements to ensure that they will benefit from Ford's big electric vehicle complex

At last, the first electric vehicle charging station built with federal infrastructure funds opens in Ohio

Auto industry moves South with electric vehicle factories; one rural town of 400 gets ready for 6,000 Ford workers

Ford does a U-turn; all its vehicles will still have AM radio

Some car makers drop AM radios; stations react with PR campaign, citing AM's roles in communities, public safety

Animal vs. vehicle usually ends badly; pilot program aims to build more wildlife crossings; 60% of funding to be rural

Idea of making vehicular-homicide convicts pay child support for surviving children spreads 'like wildfire' in states

Electric cars threaten future of AM radio and maybe local radio news, but overcoming interference is possible

Rural roads in Minn. giving tests to autonomous vehicles

What Joe Manchin got in the climate bill for West Virginia, energy industries, sick coal miners, Toyota and himself

Kentucky’s burgeoning electric vehicle industry is no laughing matter, rural reporter tells social-media skeptics

Deadly Texas crash with 13-year-old driver draws attention to rural custom of allowing young teens behind the wheel

Rural U.S. not ready for electric vehicles, witnesses tell House committee; Jan. 19 webinar to discuss rural EVs

Electric cars could help coal in some states

Less highway traffic in pandemic may have boosted rural car-wreck mortality rate by encouraging speeding