Sunday, October 12, 2025

On the USDA Economic Research Service website right now: a reference to the "Radical Left Democrats"

›
  A banner at the top of the USDA Economic Research Service website reads:   Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, this government web...
Saturday, October 11, 2025

Rural lack of anonymity in the wake of Tennessee explosion

›
An explosion yesterday at an ammunition plant in McEwan, Tennessee, population 1643 ,  left several dead and many missing.  In the Washingto...
Thursday, September 11, 2025

Maine Law Review Call for Papers. Rural Perspectives in Law: Challenges and Opportunities

›
The Maine Law Review is seeking article proposals for our topical issue:   Rural Perspectives in Law: Challenges and Opportunities .    This...
Monday, September 8, 2025

Literary Ruralism (Part LI): Attention to "rural" in Dan Wang's Breakneck, on China's rise

›
Breakneck:  China's Quest to Engineer the Future   by technology analyst Dan Wang was published last month by W.W. Norton.  The promotio...
Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Will proposed California redistricting undermine rural interests?

›
The answer most folks from rural California would give to this question is "of course."  But I want to look a bit deeper than that...
Friday, August 8, 2025

Literary Ruralism (Part L): Farming debates and farmer decision-making in Louise Erdrich's "The Mighty Red"

›
In a prior post about Louise Erdrich's The Mighty Red , I highlighted some excerpts about small-town life.  In this post, I'm going ...
Sunday, August 3, 2025

Literary Ruralism (Part XLIX): Rural life in "The Mighty Red" by Louise Erdrich

›
I've very much enjoyed L ouise Erdrich's latest novel, The Mighty Red (2024), set in the farming exurbs near Fargo, North Dakota, al...
Sunday, July 27, 2025

New Hampshire (once again) tries to restrict student voting (Part III): The "problem" of student voting

›
This is Part III in my look at New Hampshire's history of attempting to disenfranchise college student voters. For Part I, which provide...
Friday, July 25, 2025

Planned Parenthood closes five California clinics, two of them rural(ish)

›
This story  in the San Francisco Chronicle  by Sara DiNatale reports that recent budget cuts in the so-called "Big, Beautiful Bill...
Thursday, July 24, 2025

Getting to the bottom of the rural health "slush fund"

›
When the U.S. Senate passed Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" a few weeks ago, considerable attention was paid to the sweetheart de...
Sunday, July 20, 2025

Cutbacks to public media likely to hurt rural communities the most

›
The disporportionate impact that federal funding cuts to public media will have on rural communities has been a theme of several publication...