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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North Carolina to get $150M from new opioid settlement as counties expand treatment and recovery services
July 02, 2025
Money from the latest settlement agreement with Purdue Pharma will boost counties’ efforts to curb opioid addiction and overdoses, some of which have already led to innovative programs.
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Proposed SNAP cuts trouble NC food assistance programs
June 05, 2025
Private philanthropy won’t be able to make up the difference at food banks if proposed SNAP and Medicaid cuts are enacted, program operators say. Those benefits go a long way in rural North Carolina and the state’s small towns, where one in six residents have benefited from SNAP, compared with the one in nine residents in metro areas.
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Healthy Opportunities Pilot told to prepare for program to shutter July 1
June 03, 2025
Spending plans proposed by North Carolina’s House of Representatives and Senate effectively eliminate funding for the program.
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Scathing new report details North Carolina’s involuntary commitment problem
May 27, 2025
Disability Rights NC spent a year investigating the state’s overuse of the legal procedure, which leaves patients locked up at a high cost with few rights.
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School-based telehealth expands further in North Carolina
April 11, 2025
Health advocates say that school-based telehealth care cuts down on absenteeism, ensures that students get routine care that they might not otherwise be able to get, and can even boost test scores.
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RFK Jr.’s federal health department cuts sow confusion, uncertainty and fear in North Carolina
April 09, 2025
Federal workers and grant recipients wade into uncertain waters as they await details of a restructuring plan promoted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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In the wake of disasters, rural health could end up running on sunshine
April 02, 2025
Solar microgrids and other modern technologies could transform care delivery in disaster-prone, underserved areas.
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‘A slap on the wrist’: families and advocates call for increased accountability from assisted living facilities
March 24, 2025
Inconsistent enforcement and the penalty appeal process mean some facilities get away with light punishments for wrongdoing, advocates say.
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Rural North Carolina counties would suffer most from Medicaid cuts
February 17, 2025
Funding reductions proposed by Congress threaten hospitals, children’s health and local economies.
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NC moves to end police involvement in transporting mental health patients
February 03, 2025
North Carolina is launching a $20 million pilot program to take law enforcement personnel out of the process of transporting mental health patients being involuntarily committed — aiming to end the traumatic practice of having officers handcuff and transport patients and eliminate the strain on smaller departments with fewer resources.
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Helene exacerbated rise in homelessness across western North Carolina
December 16, 2024
The storm increased awareness of how easily one can become homeless, the region’s growing number of unhoused people and how it’s harder than ever to find a place to live.
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Nowhere to hide: Microplastics are polluting western North Carolina watersheds
December 11, 2024
A year-long study finds an alarming trend about the distribution of microplastics in a remote section of a mountain watershed.
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North Carolina drug overdose deaths appear to be dropping. Why?
November 13, 2024
As drug experts parse the data trying to understand the factors that could contribute to a sudden drop in overdose deaths, harm reductionists in western North Carolina work to stave off a possible spike in overdoses after the destruction brought by Hurricane Helene.
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In rural Avery County, Helene washed away one of the only dental clinics
November 11, 2024
High Country Community Health has mobilized to help residents still reeling from the storm’s calamitous lurch through western North Carolina.
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Post-Helene, mental health providers help kids cope
October 18, 2024
Tens of thousands of NC kids have had their lives upended by Helene. Mental health professionals are taking the first steps toward supporting their long-term healing.
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