Coronavirus in rural America (Part CXI): Three big NYT stories out of New Mexico, Pennsylviania and Kentucky

Adam Ferguson reports with photos and text from micropolitan Gallup, New Mexico, population 21,605, in the northwest corner of the state.   The headline is, "The Place Hit Hardest by the Virus."  This is the part of New Mexico with the greatest concentration of American Indians, Navajo in particular.  Here's an interesting quote about the economics of what's happening there now:

Bill Lee, the head of Gallup’s Chamber of Commerce, said there has been a growing economic divide because of the restrictions put in place by local and state officials. Smaller businesses often have to operate with stricter guidelines, including rules preventing in-store shopping, while bigger box stores, especially those deemed essential, could operate with fewer limits. “The governor has chosen winners and losers,” Mr. Lee told me.

The second story is Matt Richtel's "How the Pandemic is Imperiling a Working-Class College," dateline, Indiana, Pennsylvania, population 13,975. The story notes that the 10,000 students who typically enroll annually at this publicly supported university don't have access to professional networks (as via their parents) because many are first-generation.  Now, during the pandemic, the university is facing budget cuts that are hurting students and threatening the jobs of faculty and staff.  There's a lot of data on the rural-urban higher education gap suggesting that the rate of BA attainment would be greater if colleges and universities themselves were more accessible.  This story seems to support that thesis. 

The third is out of Perry County, Kentucky, population 28,712, from whence Ben Casselman and Will Wright report under the headline, "Kentucky Is Hurting as Its Senators Limit or Oppose Federal Aid."  The subhead focuses on rural-urban difference: "Urban and rural fortunes diverge in the state, with the pandemic compounding troubles that predated it."  Perry County is in the impoverished Appalachian (Eastern) part of the state.