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: Honeybees have feelings, too; $50 million in venture capital raised to bring more doctors to rural America

USDA and EPA officials tour Black Belt county to see chronic sewage problems, a disproportionately rural issue

Feds relax rules for local and state governments' relief funds; 'a major win for many smaller communities'

Rural stakeholders encouraged to speak up to get federal aid for water systems; more funds may be on the way

Small water systems may have a hard time beefing up cybersecurity at a time their vulnerability has been revealed

Quick hits: How FCC has wasted broadband money; Rep. Kinzinger says he's following his duty as an evangelical

What's in the bipartisan relief bill for agriculture and more

Quick hits: pharmacists could administer kids' vaccinations; what post-pandemic food supply chains could look like

Quick hits: New books explore Dolly Parton's music; new podcast series examines the 1980s farm crisis

Covid-19 deaths shift rural attitudes about pandemic

Rural water and sewage utilities, often left out of pandemic relief, struggle to keep operating when customers can't pay

Report: more than 2 million Americans lack clean water

After Midwest flooding, hazards remain

Small water, sewer systems show vulnerablity to hackers

Package from six-month investigation explores lack of clean, reliable drinking water in Appalachian parts of Ky. and W.Va.

Looking for solutions to sewage problems in Alabama's Black Belt -- and perhaps other rural areas with the issue

Trump infrastructure plan is 25% rural, but states and localities would bear most financial burden for projects

U.N. investigator reports on extreme U.S. poverty, decries pollution and disease in Alabama

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

500,000 U.S. homes lack sewage disposal systems; problem especially bad in rural Black Belt