When they live in remote rural areas, millennials are more likely to reside in a county that has better digital access. The findings could indicate that the digital economy is helping decentralize the economy, not just clustering economic change in the cities that are already the largest. [node:read-more:link]
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has suspended a free legal assistance program for detained immigrants who need basic advice as their cases wind their way through court. "Every day this program is not in operation puts family unity at risk, harms our communities, and infringes on the right of all people to make informed decisions about their legal claims," the Vera Institute said in a statement Wednesday. [node:read-more:link]
The public school in Campo, Colorado, hasn’t required all its students to come to class on Fridays for nearly two decades. The 44-student district dropped a weekday to boost attendance and better attract teachers to a town so deep in farm country that the nearest grocery store is more than 20 miles away. “I think the four-day week helped us, initially, in recruiting teachers,” the superintendent, Nikki Johnson, said. [node:read-more:link]
ERS research in this topic area focuses on the economic, social, spatial, temporal, and demographic factors that affect the poverty status of rural residents. Sections in this topic include the following: Poverty over time, including a historical look at metro/nonmetro poverty rates and deep poverty. The geography of poverty, including analysis of poverty in a regional context, maps of the incidence/severity of poverty, and the geographic persistence of poverty over decades. The demographics of poverty, including the breakdown of rural/urban poverty by race, family structure, and age. [node:read-more:link]
The farm bill was the missing topic during a 45-minute session recently with farmers in southwestern Missouri, recalls Sen. Roy Blunt. “The farm bill never came up.” Instead, growers talked about threats to farm exports, over-regulation and the need for rural broadband. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says low commodity prices, the slump in farm income, attacks on corn ethanol and, most of all, anxiety about a possible trade war are the top concerns in farm country. There is no additional money for major changes in grain and soybean subsidies in the farm bill. [node:read-more:link]
Telecom giant T-Mobile received a sharp reminder on Monday from federal regulators: Its system still needs some work, and it can't just pretend otherwise. [node:read-more:link]
T-Mobile will pay the US Treasury $40 million to settle a dispute with the FCC over failed calls and faked ringtones for rural areas. The FCC annouced the fine, following a years-long investigation into actions that took place starting in 2016. The complaint broadly concerns how T-Mobile treats rural calls, specifically problems T-Mobile has with connecting calls to rural areas and the length of time taken to establish a call. [node:read-more:link]
Molly Byrnes, 34, and Jesse Hofmann-Smith, 35, can’t reliably make phone calls on their cellular network from their cozy apartment on the outskirts of Taos, New Mexico, but they can host real-time webinars and build websites online for clients across the country. Their casita is one of about 6,300 homes and businesses in northern New Mexico connected to a high-speed fiber-optic internet network run by an unlikely source: the local electric cooperative. An increasing number of rural electric cooperatives in the U.S. [node:read-more:link]
The opioid crisis has hit rural America especially hard where workers tend to have higher injury rates with many jobs requiring physical labor and involving more risk. A December survey by the National Farmers Union and the American Farm Bureau Federation found that as many as 74% of farmers have been directly impacted by the opioid crisis. The opioid crisis has hit rural America especially hard where workers tend to have higher injury rates with many jobs requiring physical labor and involving more risk. [node:read-more:link]
Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill into law that will help prevent animal-abuse offenders from owning pets. Ponce’s Law is named after Ponce, a Labrador retriever puppy found beaten to death in Ponce Inlet last year. The puppy’s owner, Travis Archer, is awaiting trial on felony animal cruelty charges. What the animal-cruelty law does do is allow judges to bar offenders from owning a pet for a court-ordered period of time.The law also increases the chances of offenders receiving a sentencing that includes jail time. Ponce’s Law increased the severity ranking of an animal abuse-related crime. [node:read-more:link]
