Alex Milan Tracy for Underscore
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The dozens of independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news organizations that make up the Rural News Network are developing the broadest news alliance reporting on rural America. These newsrooms are pursuing coverage that provides a more complete picture of what it means to live and work in these communities.
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LATEST NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
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Thousands of churches will likely close down. What happens to all that real estate?
March 15, 2024
A new book looks at the ways churches could be reused for the public good in the future, including rural sanctuaries partnering with health care centers.
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Protesters far outnumber Westboro demonstrators in Owasso
March 07, 2024
The handful of Westboro Baptist Church demonstrators who gathered outside of Owasso High School just after 2 p.m. Wednesday sported signs with captions that targeted transgender and nonbinary people.
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As wildfires rage through Panhandle, Fritch residents seek respite at church
March 01, 2024
Shaken by the devastation, families find comfort in each other as they pick through the rubble and commune at a church in nearby Borger.
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Anti-Semitic propaganda distributed again in Wausau
February 04, 2024
Residents in Wausau say they received anti-Semitic leaflets stuffed in their mailboxes over the weekend that connects Jewish religious law with satanism.
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Vaccine exemptions surge in Wyoming
January 24, 2024
Likely spurred by flawed studies in the 90s and vaccine fears during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of religious exemptions continues to grow.
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An East Texas city goes secular for the holidays, rejecting a menorah in downtown holiday display
December 15, 2023
Smith County’s top elected official said the downtown square’s holiday decorations policy seeks to avoid a “hodgepodge.”
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Native Alaskan healer named North America’s first female saint in Orthodox Church
November 10, 2023
A Native Alaskan midwife known for her healing love, especially toward abused women, has become the first female Orthodox Christian saint from North America after she was glorified at a meeting of bishops of the Orthodox Church in America in Chicago this week.
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Black churches play a key role in connecting communities to broadband internet
October 06, 2023
Black clergy and faith leaders in the rural South have been working for years to bridge the digital divide in their communities and congregations, and a pandemic-era federal program gave those efforts a boost by offering discounted internet access. But fewer than half of the estimated 49 million Americans who are eligible have enrolled, and now questions loom about the program’s long-term funding by Congress.
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Pipestone carvers preserve revered Native spiritual tradition
July 24, 2023
Only a dozen Dakota carvers remain in the predominantly agricultural area bordering South Dakota. While tensions have flared periodically over how broadly to produce and share the rare artifacts, many Dakota today are focusing on how to pass on to future generations a difficult skillset that’s inextricably linked to spiritual practice.
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Minnesota forest land linked to polygamous leader Warren Jeffs is up for sale
July 07, 2023
News that the 40-acre plot is back on the market relieved residents in the remote area near the town of Grand Marais, where some once feared the group would establish a new compound, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported Thursday.
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Former Barre distillery owner unmasked as neo-Nazi podcaster
June 13, 2023
After a group of anonymous anti-fascist researchers linked Ryan Woodie Dumperth – a former distillery owner and church leader in the town of Barre (population 9,000) to the online account “Treblewoe” through a variety of online records, Treblewoe appeared to confirm the connection on June 1.
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New Mexican Spanish, a unique American dialect, survives mostly in prayers
May 23, 2023
The historic, endangered dialect is as central to these communities as their iconic adobe churches.
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Protestant Leaders Balance Cultural Divides as LGBTQ Issues Split Appalachian Statehouses
May 18, 2023
For allies of faith who support the LGBTQ community, it can be a complicated landscape to navigate. Church splits are painful, personal relationships have suffered, and in rural Appalachian towns, such divisions can fracture entire communities.
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In rural Texas, spending taxpayer money on private schools is a hard sell
April 25, 2023
Gov. Greg Abbott has been barnstorming his state, trying to convince parents in rural areas to support his education savings accounts, a form of school vouchers.
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