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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Delta barn where Emmett Till was slain is bought as a ‘sacred site’
November 24, 2025
The injustice of the killers getting away with murder helped propel the modern civil rights movement.
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Entergy Mississippi announces largest grid upgrade in history
September 25, 2025
Entergy is the state’s largest utility company, serving about 459,000 customers in 45 counties.
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Mississippi’s pre-K program earns high marks. Why did lawmakers create another one?
September 19, 2025
One legislative leader who helped create the collaboratives is concerned the new program might siphon away resources, or recreate some of the problems the state faced for decades with early learning.
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Mississippi broadband expansion moves forward despite federal changes
July 30, 2025
Broadband can open up business opportunities, provide access to telehealth care and more jobs, especially in rural areas that often have the lowest rates of high speed internet availability.
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A Food-Growing Tradition Finds New Roots in the Mississippi Delta
July 18, 2025
In a farming region where most crops get shipped elsewhere, a growing group of farmers is cultivating produce that makes it to local plates.
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Two Delta school districts move toward goal of local control
July 03, 2025
School systems can become districts of transformation if they consistently receive failing grades in the state’s accountability report card. Under that model, those districts have to develop and implement improvement plans.
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Nearly 70 percent of Mississippi rural hospitals don’t deliver babies; new report shows trend is growing nationwide
May 13, 2025
Rural hospitals across the country are shuttering their labor and delivery doors, leaving millions of women – including Mississippians – without maternity care.
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‘Devastating’: Blue Cross moms now face out of pocket costs for breastfeeding help
May 09, 2025
Mississippi moms will no longer be able to use Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi insurance to cover lactation services after they leave the hospital.
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As Congress moves toward potential Medicaid cuts, expansion grows more unlikely in Mississippi
February 26, 2025
Hundreds of thousands of poor, disabled or pregnant Mississippians could lose health care coverage if Congress slashes funding for Medicaid.
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Mississippi again turns down millions of dollars to feed low-income kids during summer months
February 03, 2025
Hundreds of thousands of eligible poor Mississippi children will miss out on grocery assistance this summer after the state missed the deadline to apply for the federal program for the second year in a row.
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‘Easy to just write us off’: Rural students’ options shrink as colleges slash majors
November 26, 2024
As enrollments fall, rural-serving universities are shedding degree programs from music to chemistry.
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PHOTOS: Bridging language barriers through interpreter training
October 31, 2024
In Mississippi, where an estimated 35,800 residents face language barriers in health care, a recent event trained professionals to communicate more effectively with limited-English-speaking patients in an effort to bridge gaps in care.
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‘They try to keep people quiet’: An epidemic of antipsychotic drugs in nursing homes
September 19, 2024
The six homes in Mississippi with the highest rates of antipsychotic drug use are three private facilities in the Delta and three homes associated with the state’s psychiatric hospital.
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Mississippi has more rural emergency hospitals than any other state. Can the ‘lifeline’ program save rural health care?
August 07, 2024
Some have hailed the federal designation, created in 2023, as a lifeline for struggling rural hospitals at risk of closure. Others say it forces hospitals between a rock and a hard place.
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‘Goals nobody can argue with’: Mississippi universities rebrand DEI to focus on access, opportunity and belonging
August 02, 2024
The schools said the changes did not come with a reduction to any programs, scholarships or initiatives that aim to support the enrollment, retention and employment of students and faculty from historically marginalized groups
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