Rural

Tennessee's economic development officials want to help rescue rural hospitals. They propose dispatching restructuring specialists to a dozen or more hospitals that are teetering on the edge. Tennessee has lost more hospitals since 2012 than any state but Texas, and the Department of Economic and Community Development argues that hospitals are doubly important for rural communities. They're often the largest employer around, and without one, it's virtually impossible to recruit major businesses to the area. [node:read-more:link]

From the moment they are arrested, people with an addiction to heroin and prescription painkillers and those who are taking medications to beat their addictions face the prospect of painful opioid withdrawal. At least a quarter of the people in U.S. prisons and jails are addicted to opioids. [node:read-more:link]

New research shows that children from poor families in rural communities earn more by their mid-20s than their urban peers, contrary to stereotypes about the disadvantages of growing up rural. A major study of individual incomes found that poor children who grow up in three-quarters of rural counties earn more than the national average by their mid-20s. Find out about what researchers call “neighborhood effects” in rural communities and the lifelong advantages of growing up in places with less income disparity, good schools, and strong civic life. [node:read-more:link]

As states struggle to close the connectivity gap in rural areas, some experts believe a federal mandate, similar to the one that first brought those residents electricity, might be in order.The American landscape of broadband in rural areas is spotty at best. It is a picture covered with splotches of color. Some maps are covered with red indicating there is no service; and other maps are covered in blue where access can be found. [node:read-more:link]

A growing number of mostly Republican-led states are itching to create work requirements for people on Medicaid, but finding a way to pay for it could prove challenging. In Tennessee, lawmakers want to add a Medicaid work mandate, but only if they can use federal — not state — dollars to make it happen. [node:read-more:link]

oday, fewer than 15 percent of U.S. businesses are located in rural areas and small towns. Bank loans for amounts less than $1 million, primarily to family-owned small businesses and farms, have dropped by nearly half since 2005. These are warning signs for the basic building-blocks of the economy which serve as the foundation of America’s economic stability. [node:read-more:link]

CEOs from rural power providers will descend on Congress this week with the message that "second-class service" will no longer be tolerated and their customers deserve the same treatment as those who live in cities. “Rural America should expect comparable broadband speeds as urban citizens, and not subject to ‘second-class service." The utilities want key grant programs fully funded under both the Farm Bill and fiscal 2019 budget appropriations, as well as "vehicles to invest in rural broadband,” which means a combination of loans and grants. [node:read-more:link]

This legislative session gave rural Georgia micro hospitals, a new health care-focused think tank and a sizable down payment on economic development initiatives tailored for the state’s beleaguered small towns. [node:read-more:link]

Former Washington Gov. Dan Evans accused the state in a court document Monday of stirring up social unrest by appealing an order to replace fish-blocking culverts. Seattle lawyer Joe Mentor Jr. submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the 92-year-old Evans. The brief supports 21 Western Washington Indian tribes that sued to remove the culverts and restore salmon habitat. [node:read-more:link]

Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett announced that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is giving funding priority in two key grant programs to address opioid misuse in rural communities. “The opioid epidemic is dramatically impacting prosperity in many small towns and rural places across the country,” Hazlett said. [node:read-more:link]