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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Quick hits: AI gets an 'F' in language; more on eggs; barndominium battles; gift economies; dam removal benefits

Campaigning with rural policy messages could 'move the needle' in swing states, a new poll suggests

'Social investment platform' for Central Appalachia says it has rounded up $19 million and is already funding projects

Thur. webinar to discuss economic justice in Indian Country

Focus on W. Va., driven by Manchin's pivotal role, could also help the rest of Appalachia and other distressed rural areas

Black progressive who nearly won Senate nod in Ky. says liberals must listen to rural conservatives, find commonality

Jan. 30 is deadline to seek Hillman Prizes, which recognize journalism that advances social and economic justice

J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy to be made into a film directed by Ron Howard

Several slices of rural America are largely ignored

Hillbilly Elegy's Vance says he will return to his native Ohio to start nonprofit for upward mobility

Book about extended Appalachian family helps explain trials of the lesser-educated working class

Progressives, liberals largely ignore rural interests, but shouldn't, 2012 candidate writes

Daily Yonder asks what the candidates should be saying to get rural votes, and gets many answers

Feds establish initiative to award up to $38 million to help revive struggling Ky. coal communities

Central Appalachian economic woes are a warning to energy-boom regions, rural expert says

Walmart to raise minimum wages to at least $10 per hour by 2016

Retired miner says effort to reshape Appalachian Kentucky's economy is all talk and no action

Getting by on nothing in America, in the words of some who wrote about it on Reddit

Wages declined in 1/3 of counties in last decade; what happened in your county? This map shows

West Virginia follows Kentucky's lead, forms group to reshape Appalachian economy