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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Yokohama Tire to lay off 392 in Salem, considers closing plant
January 16, 2026
The company said its reduced production will begin in March.
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New mental health program meets kids where they are: at school
January 12, 2026
Nurture Now is available to Appomattox County students from preschool through high school.
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‘Virginia’s fourth economic engine’: Effort to connect Southwest and Southside localities makes progress
October 31, 2025
There’s a lot of momentum and enthusiasm in the region, she said — industrial sites that are getting attention in Martinsville, the U.S. Navy presence and shipbuilding workforce pipeline program in Danville, the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke and the Virginia Tech Fralin Life Sciences Institute in Blacksburg.
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The Shenandoah Valley spawns a rare competitive race — and charges that an incumbent used his office to help himself. But did he?
October 02, 2025
What used to be farmland around Harrisonburg is now growing subdivisions, strip malls and something even more unusual in the Shenandoah Valley: Democratic voters.
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Gilbert’s Restaurant in Chatham, once a safe haven for Black travelers, was almost torn down. Then it received national and state historic designations.
September 19, 2025
The restaurant, which opened in 1945 and served famous faces and local patrons alike, was approved for a state historic marker this year.
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SNAP cuts loom, and nonprofits fear they can’t fill the gap left behind
September 11, 2025
Changes in work requirements and reductions in federal funding mean fewer Virginians will have access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Food pantries already struggling to meet demand worry they won’t be able to keep up.
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Residents look to historical tourism to preserve Cumberland County’s past and create economic opportunities for its future
July 10, 2025
There are over 80 churches, homes and other resources with African American historical significance within a state-recognized Pine Grove Rural Historic District designation in Cumberland County.
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Straightforward reporting on protests set a paper apart — and caused problems for its publisher
June 18, 2025
The Commercial Appeal quoted local and national civil rights leaders. It also covered goings-on in Danville’s Black neighborhoods.
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Brighter future? Solar apprenticeships add renewable energy skills to local jobs
May 20, 2025
A regional partnership aims to train young people as they go, developing workforce skills in anticipation of increasing demand for renewable energy-focused jobs in the heart of coal country.
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Food banks brace for continued USDA funding cuts
April 11, 2025
Feeding America Southwest Virginia, which works with more than 300 local programs, relies on the USDA for almost a third of its food.
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Trump approves disaster declaration for Southwest Virginia communities hit by February flooding
April 04, 2025
Some areas received as much as 7 inches of rain, resulting in flash flooding, closed road, mudslides, and damaged and destroyed bridges, homes and businesses.
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Dozens of community projects halted after federal funding was omitted from Congressional stop-gap spending bill
April 01, 2025
Congress passed a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown in mid-March, amid a partisan fight over federal spending. That continuing resolution left out tens of millions of dollars in funding for Southwest and Southside community projects.
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Amid furor over diversity efforts, VMI board ousts school’s first Black superintendent
February 28, 2025
The 10 board members who voted against a contract extension for retired Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins were appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
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Federal cuts could affect all of Virginia — a new committee hopes to determine how
February 17, 2025
Speaker Don Scott formed an emergency bipartisan committee tasked with studying the possible fallout of significant federal funding and staff cuts after the first three whirlwind weeks of the second Trump Administration.
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Goodyear to cut 850 jobs at Danville plant
February 05, 2025
The tire manufacturer said most of the job reductions would occur by the end of this year. The move comes as the company shifts its commercial tire production to other facilities.
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