Locally sourced, collaborative reporting from and for rural America.
Featured Story
USDA photo by Lance Cheung
A new network of attorneys seeks to defend abuses of industrial agriculture. First up, Colorado.
FarmSTAND focuses resources on specific cases that can change precedent on agricultural issues in the courts, working in collaboration with grassroots organizations from local to national levels.
LATEST NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
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New Guidelines Proposed for Mergers Could Bring Back More Healthy Market Competion to Rural Areas
Advocates say the rules would help farmers, ranches, and rural economies by bringing back a more competitive market.
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Is groundwater trading the future of California water?
With risks to small farmers, new groundwater markets could make almond, pistachios investments more secure through drought.
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Cherokee Nation launches broad expansion into film industry
The tribe aims to become a media production hub for the film and television industry with a new studio and original productions.
RNN Highlights
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San José Public Library via Flickr
“We’ve Had Death Threats, Bomb Threats”
This is the first in a series examining the essential role libraries play in rural areas and the movement afoot to ban books and restrict funding.
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Created by Timothy Robert Smith
Mural Magic
New underpass art reflects diversity of Salinas community. Nestled in the heart of California’s agricultural landscape, Salinas has been a magnet for murals for several decades.
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Annie Ropeik for The Maine Monitor
Hooked on heating oil: Maine’s reliance on a dirty, expensive fuel
Maine relies on home heating oil more than any other state. Ending that costly dependence could improve lives and fight climate change, but it won’t be easy.
RNN COLLABORATIONS
Learn more about how RNN series affect change.
MORE NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
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Study Looks at Climate Change Effects On Rural Electrical Grids
September 25, 2023
Investigators from universities in South Dakota, Puerto Rico, Maine and Alaska are working together for the next four years to study severe weather events and electrical grids.
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Invasive Species Are Radically Altering Hawaii’s Ecology
September 22, 2023
The risk of unprecedented fires is primarily due to poor land management, a plantation-era legacy.
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Wisconsin’s Black infants have some of the country’s highest mortality rates. These solutions could help.
September 18, 2023
Addressing societal factors — including stress caused by poverty and racism and lack of access to health care — could improve pregnancy outcomes, research shows.
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BLM’s new management plan balances conservation, energy extraction
September 18, 2023
A proposal for managing millions of acres in southwest Wyoming would reduce conflicts between drilling and other uses like hunting and recreation.
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This Hawaii Super PAC Says It’s Raising Money For Wildfire Victims — And Political Candidates Too
September 18, 2023
Money raised for direct relief could end up being used for political candidates and activities.
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Lawmakers gave WV firefighters a one-time cash infusion. Volunteer departments need a long-term solution.
September 18, 2023
Despite conversations in Charleston, volunteer fire departments across the state are going underfunded. Here’s what that means for the boots on the ground.
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Central Valley communities of color lack flood control. Would representation on water boards help?
September 14, 2023
In the aftermath of the damage to small, low-income Central Valley towns like Allensworth and Planada, community leaders are reiterating a call to diversify water boards to give marginalized groups more power.
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‘These are not good numbers’: Thousands more Mississippians, kids dropped from Medicaid
September 14, 2023
As unwinding continues for the next several months, the burden on the state’s already crumbling health care infrastructure grows. One report puts nearly a half of the state’s rural hospitals at risk of closure.
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Latino votes drop in N.C.: Why it happened and why some Latinos are voting Republican
September 14, 2023
Spanish-language news media in North Carolina are concentrated in the Triangle and Charlotte areas, leaving out rural areas. And yet, according to a UNC Chapel Hill demographic analysis, the Hispanic population is smaller in more rural counties but has seen faster growth there over the past 30 years.