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  31. <title>Q&#038;A: Ben Durheim on Understanding Rural Places, Local Symbols, and the Rural-Urban Divide </title>
  32. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-ben-durheim-on-understanding-rural-places-local-symbols-and-the-rural-urban-divide/2026/06/12/</link>
  33. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-ben-durheim-on-understanding-rural-places-local-symbols-and-the-rural-urban-divide/2026/06/12/#respond</comments>
  35. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Allen T. Stanton]]></dc:creator>
  36. <pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  37. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  38. <category><![CDATA[Path Finders]]></category>
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  42. <p>Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&#38;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week. [&#8230;]</p>
  43. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-ben-durheim-on-understanding-rural-places-local-symbols-and-the-rural-urban-divide/2026/06/12/">Q&amp;A: Ben Durheim on Understanding Rural Places, Local Symbols, and the Rural-Urban Divide </a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  46. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/path-finders/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Path Finders</a>, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&amp;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-appalachian-potter-josh-copus-has-mud-in-the-blood/2025/06/20/#signup">join the mailing list at the bottom of this article</a> and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.</em></p>
  47.  
  48.  
  49.  
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  51.  
  52.  
  53.  
  54. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Ben Durheim is convinced that we can bridge the rural-urban divide. The problem, Durheim thinks, is that within the public sphere, there is a faulty belief that rural and non-rural places just need to talk more. Durheim says that many conversations between rural and urban start from a place of trying to fix each other, which leads to a failure to effectively communicate. In order for rural and non-rural places to flourish together, Durheim says that we need to understand the rural contexts and the ways rural places shape the way we speak, act, and live together.&nbsp;</p>
  55.  
  56.  
  57.  
  58. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Durheim is assistant professor of theology at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in Minnesota, where he teaches courses in theology and ethics. In this Q&amp;A, Durheim discusses his new book, <a href="https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/9781506498157/Each-in-Our-Own-Language"><em>Each in Their Own Language: Symbolization and Social Ethics in Rural America</em></a><em>.&nbsp;</em></p>
  59.  
  60.  
  61.  
  62. <p class="has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph"><em>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.&nbsp;</em></p>
  63.  
  64.  
  65.  
  66. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Allen Stanton: What was the motivation for this particular book?</strong></p>
  67.  
  68.  
  69.  
  70. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Ben Durheim: </strong>I&#8217;m deeply invested in the idea that the rural should flourish and both rural and non-rural can flourish together. I&#8217;ve gotten both tired, and a little annoyed, with the pervading discourse associated with the rural and non-rural divide. Particularly areas of discourse that tend to treat one or the other side as simply a problem to be fixed. Ideas like, “If they would just do things our way, then things would be better.”</p>
  71.  
  72.  
  73.  
  74. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">There is a presumption that “If we just understood each other, things would be better.” And that seems to have gotten flattened into “If I just understand what people are saying, then I will understand what they mean and then if things go wrong, it&#8217;s their own fault.”</p>
  75.  
  76.  
  77.  
  78. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>AS: You talk about how symbols help us understand this deeper meaning. What is a rural symbol, and how do they help us understand rural communities better?&nbsp;</strong></p>
  79.  
  80.  
  81.  
  82. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>BD: </strong>You have to be careful with that language. When people hear symbol, they tend to think something that stands for something else, right? And that&#8217;s not what I mean.&nbsp;</p>
  83.  
  84.  
  85.  
  86. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Symbol is closer to the experience of something taking hold of you; an experience that moves a person. An experience that gives insight. A perspective that may have been unexpected. So if you have a really important and long relationship – either with a friend or place or with even with a particular food or something – if you try to explain that to someone, it doesn’t convey the same depth of experience as if you would introduce them to your friend, or you would bring them to that place, or if you would help them make and then eat that food.&nbsp;</p>
  87.  
  88.  
  89.  
  90. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Space brings with it a level of meaning that words can’t. Rather than the deep experience of lived rural life, we see misfires in our conversations, even when there’s the best of intentions.&nbsp;</p>
  91.  
  92.  
  93.  
  94. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>AS: How do these symbols shape the identity of rural places?&nbsp;</strong></p>
  95.  
  96.  
  97.  
  98. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>BD: </strong>Every time I go to a church or to a public event or a talk, I ask folks, “What does it mean to be rural?” I’ve never had someone be confused by the question. I’ve also rarely had people be able to give an answer that holds the whole thing.&nbsp;</p>
  99.  
  100.  
  101.  
  102. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Instead, people tend to talk about experiences. The experience of being in a small town, graduating with 78 people, not having certain amenities but having other benefits. Or it means a long family history in a particular area.&nbsp;</p>
  103.  
  104.  
  105.  
  106. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That’s where symbols start to operate. Because if you change one aspect of that space, for example, a rural church closing, emotions come out, far beyond the logistics of keeping a building open or not. Because we’re talking about someone’s home, some piece of not just individual identity, but the shared identity of a community.&nbsp;</p>
  107.  
  108.  
  109.  
  110. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Many, if not most, people seem to have an operative understanding of what “rural” is. But it’s not a definition. It tends to be more like a sense, or a feeling. It’s a conglomeration of ideas or perspectives. And once we exit the conversation on definitions, we’re in a space where symbols function: particular kinds of cultural expressions.&nbsp;</p>
  111.  
  112.  
  113.  
  114. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>AS: You also write that symbols can lie. What do you mean by that?</strong></p>
  115.  
  116.  
  117.  
  118. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>BD: </strong>Since symbols operate under language, they can also convey things that are less than true. One classic example would be the symbol of a safe, quaint, small town in which nothing bad ever happens. We know that’s simply not true. Bad things do happen in rural spaces.&nbsp;</p>
  119.  
  120.  
  121.  
  122. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The symbol of the safe, small town where everyone has got everyone’s back mediates something that is partially true. But it can also tell us something that is not true: that we are safer here than anywhere else.&nbsp;</p>
  123.  
  124.  
  125.  
  126. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Or, another example. There’s a common understanding of rural as pretty much white America. The number of non-white rural residents has been increasing steadily over the past few decades. So, when I go talk to some churches who have not offered, for example, resources for Hispanic ministry, I ask, “Have you thought about learning Spanish or offering ministry in Spanish?” More than once, I’ve gotten the response, “We don’t have a Hispanic population.” Every time I’ve gotten that answer, it’s been in a place that <em>does</em> have a Hispanic population.</p>
  127.  
  128.  
  129.  
  130. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The symbol of the German or Norwegian church that has been here for more than 100 years can mediate an untruth about the ethnic or cultural stasis of the community’s population.&nbsp;</p>
  131.  
  132.  
  133.  
  134. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>AS: You argue that these symbols shape our ethics and patterns. How?&nbsp;</strong></p>
  135.  
  136.  
  137.  
  138. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>BD: </strong>One narrative that tends to come out is that when it comes to public policy, politics, and voting, is this old line that rural places have a history of voting against their interests.&nbsp;</p>
  139.  
  140.  
  141.  
  142. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It’s not clear to me that many rural spaces were consulted with regard to defining what exactly their interests are in that conversation. And that’s what I want to help make explicit. What really are the values operating here?&nbsp;</p>
  143.  
  144.  
  145.  
  146. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Ethics is not about <em>just</em> what’s right or wrong – though that’s certainly there – but it’s also about what is worthy, what is worth investment, what is worth time and energy and toil and hurt. So, symbols help complete that picture.&nbsp;</p>
  147.  
  148.  
  149.  
  150. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">An example would be local stability. Stability is not something that often shows up in an ethics textbook. But in many rural places, local stability is a cornerstone of what it is to be part of this space. To recognize the businesses, schools, and institutions that have been stable for a long time. That becomes really important to both the individual identity and that community’s identity.&nbsp;</p>
  151.  
  152.  
  153.  
  154. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">What does that rural space value? You do actually have to reckon with that if you’re going to both understand and work with a rural community.</p>
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  171. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This interview first appeared in <strong>Path Finders</strong>, a weekly email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each Monday, Path Finders features a Q&amp;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Join the mailing list today, to have these illuminating conversations delivered straight to your inbox. </p>
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  209. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-ben-durheim-on-understanding-rural-places-local-symbols-and-the-rural-urban-divide/2026/06/12/">Q&amp;A: Ben Durheim on Understanding Rural Places, Local Symbols, and the Rural-Urban Divide </a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  218. <title>Yonder Radio: Repopulating Olympia Oysters, the Rye Resurgence Project, and Music from Hillbilly Gothic</title>
  219. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-repopulating-olympia-oysters-the-rye-resurgence-project-and-music-from-hillbilly-gothic/2026/06/12/</link>
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  222. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Staff]]></dc:creator>
  223. <pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  224. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
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  227. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  228. <p>Tune in for conversations about repopulating Olympia oysters, and Colorado entrepreneurs growing low-water grains in the San Luis Valley. Plus, a review of the latest albums from Noah Kahan and Kacey Musgraves, and an interview with opera singer and arts mentor Yvette McDaniel. This week's featured musician is Clover-Lynn.</p>
  229. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-repopulating-olympia-oysters-the-rye-resurgence-project-and-music-from-hillbilly-gothic/2026/06/12/">Yonder Radio: Repopulating Olympia Oysters, the Rye Resurgence Project, and Music from Hillbilly Gothic</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  230. ]]></description>
  231. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  232. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  233. <iframe loading="lazy" title="Yonder Radio 6/11/26 Billboard" width="780" height="439" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o4wHZAt9mCM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
  234. </div></figure>
  235.  
  236.  
  237.  
  238. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Every week, Yonder Radio brings rural conversations with national reach to listeners around the country.&nbsp;</p>
  239.  
  240.  
  241.  
  242. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This week, we start off talking about a movement to grow water-conscious, and delicious, grains in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. Community organizations and businesses are partnering to put rye, and other crops that do well in dry climates, on the map for farmers, entrepreneurs, and consumers.&nbsp;</p>
  243.  
  244.  
  245.  
  246. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Then, culture reporters Susannah Broun and Madelon Basil dissect the latest albums from Noah Kahan and Kacey Musgraves, two rural artists whose new music is all about leaving home, and coming back again.&nbsp;</p>
  247.  
  248.  
  249.  
  250. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Daily Yonder contributor Nhatt Nichols takes us to coastal Washington, to learn about how local organizations are repopulating native Olympia oysters to repair the Salish Sea’s complex ecosystem. And Taylor Sisk introduces us to Yvette McDaniel, an opera singer and community arts advocate from South Carolina’s low country.&nbsp;</p>
  251.  
  252.  
  253.  
  254. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Our featured musician is Clover-Lynn, also known as Hillbilly Gothic — a banjo picker who brings a gothic flair to traditional mountain music.&nbsp;</p>
  255.  
  256.  
  257.  
  258. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Tune in to hear all that and more, on this week’s episode of Yonder Radio.</p>
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  328. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio</strong>&nbsp;is a new, free, hour-long show that is fresh every week and designed to help fill programming gaps. We’ll feature nuanced stories that represent the 60 million people who live in rural America, and the distinct communities they call home.</p>
  329.  
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  332. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Each week will start with a news round-up: think of this as the top headlines read through a rural lens. For instance, how does a government shutdown affect federal workers living in rural communities? Or, what do changes in Medicare policy mean for small town hospitals? We’ll also talk with reporters for in-depth but conversational segments going beyond the headlines, exploring their coverage on topics shaping rural communities. We’ll highlight how these stories unfold across different regions, offering local nuance with a broader perspective.</p>
  333.  
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  336. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is not just news. It’s also a show focused on rural lives and livelihoods. That means weekly human-interest stories, hearing from hunters, farmers, gardeners, and shopkeepers; conversations with artists supporting and reimagining traditions; performances by regional musicians; and vibrant analysis of rural representation in pop culture. Add in a round of engaging trivia, and you’ve got a show that’s as rich and varied as the places it comes from.</p>
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  341.  
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  344. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Public media just took a $1.1 billion hit, thanks to recent Congressional cuts, and as we’ve all seen, it’s rural broadcasters that bear the brunt. And even before these cuts, the rural communities we all cover have felt the consequences of a media landscape transformed by conglomerates, consolidation, and the declining resources available to local outlets.&nbsp;</p>
  345.  
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  348. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is designed to fill programming gaps for those stations struggling to find quality content. It will be formatted to fit stations’ needs with internal breaks built in.&nbsp;The show&nbsp;gives stations an accessible, flexible, high-quality hour of content every week.</p>
  349.  
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  353.  
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  356. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is produced by the Center for Rural Strategies, publisher of the Daily Yonder. Centering rural stories with nuance, context, and care has made the Daily Yonder the nation’s preeminent source for rural news for nearly two decades. Rural Strategies’ additional programs, including Rural Assembly, Rural Faith Initiative, and Living Traditions, will provide enriching voices and stories to this collaborative radio show.&nbsp;<strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is hosted by Jared Ewy, a veteran radio personality and regular contributor to the Daily Yonder.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  357. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-repopulating-olympia-oysters-the-rye-resurgence-project-and-music-from-hillbilly-gothic/2026/06/12/">Yonder Radio: Repopulating Olympia Oysters, the Rye Resurgence Project, and Music from Hillbilly Gothic</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  358. ]]></content:encoded>
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  361. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  364. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">240707</post-id> </item>
  365. <item>
  366. <title>Commentary: Ghosts of Housing Past (and Present)</title>
  367. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-ghosts-of-housing-past-and-present/2026/06/11/</link>
  368. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-ghosts-of-housing-past-and-present/2026/06/11/#respond</comments>
  370. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Skylar Baker-Jordan]]></dc:creator>
  371. <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  372. <category><![CDATA[Housing]]></category>
  373. <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category>
  374. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240051</guid>
  375.  
  376. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1500&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  377. <p>I live in a ghost town. No, really. In March, I took a job editing a local newspaper in Glasgow, Montana. Yet, unable to find a house in town, I wound up living about 20 miles north in Saint Marie – dubbed “Montana’s newest ghost town” in a recent lecture hosted by the Montana Historical [&#8230;]</p>
  378. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-ghosts-of-housing-past-and-present/2026/06/11/">Commentary: Ghosts of Housing Past (and Present)</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  379. ]]></description>
  380. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1500&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_0515-scaled.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  381. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I live in a ghost town. No, really.</p>
  382.  
  383.  
  384.  
  385. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In March, I took a job editing a local newspaper in Glasgow, Montana. Yet, unable to find a house in town, I wound up living about 20 miles north in Saint Marie – dubbed “Montana’s newest ghost town” in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqTqK0ArRtU">a recent lecture</a> hosted by the Montana Historical Society.</p>
  386.  
  387.  
  388.  
  389. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">What was once military housing for those stationed at the Glasgow Air Force Base, when the base was decommissioned in the 1970s, the town around it was largely left to decay into the prairie. Saint Marie was once home to about 7,000 people; today, barely over 300 call it home, while most of its midcentury ranch houses and duplexes stand weathered and abandoned.</p>
  390.  
  391.  
  392.  
  393. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I have grown to love Saint Marie, but the fact is, I wouldn’t live in a ghost town if I could have found a home in the town I work in.&nbsp;</p>
  394.  
  395.  
  396.  
  397. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">A new bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Jim Justice (R-W. Va.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) aims to help people like me do just that. The proposed legislation would allow farm credit institutions to lend on homes in areas with populations of 10,000 or fewer, increasing the population limit from 2,500, which was set by the Farm Credit Act of 1971, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5810198-rural-housing-crisis-legislation/">The Hill reports</a>.</p>
  398.  
  399.  
  400.  
  401. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is a good start, but it is not enough. The rural housing crisis will not be solved simply by opening more access to mortgages. We must address the underlying issues, including the need to build more affordable homes. After all, a mortgage is useless if there is no house to buy.</p>
  402.  
  403.  
  404.  
  405. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Though the American housing crisis has been percolating for decades – beginning with the subprime mortgage crisis during the Great Recession and continuing as new builds skewed towards higher-end homes and zoning laws prevented the construction of multi-family dwellings – in rural America, it became most acute after the pandemic. What should have been an economic boon to small towns instead fueled a shortage of homes, threatening to displace longtime residents, something wholly predictable in hindsight but not noticed by many at the time, including myself.</p>
  406.  
  407.  
  408.  
  409. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Remote working allows small towns and rural communities to finally compete with big cities and suburbs,” I excitedly <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/work-home-isnt-just-elites-its-revolution-rural-america-needs-opinion-1668675">wrote for Newsweek</a> in 2022. “As the cost of living in cities across America continues to skyrocket, the ability to work from home could transform into an exodus of educated professionals from their urban bubbles into the hinterlands.”</p>
  410.  
  411.  
  412.  
  413. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">To my credit, that is exactly what happened. Since the pandemic, rural communities have seen an influx of transplants – often remote workers – seeking a lower cost-of-living and a slower pace of life. Rather than building to accommodate these new arrivals, though, demand has outstripped supply.&nbsp;</p>
  414.  
  415.  
  416.  
  417. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This has led to soaring home prices and property taxes, which price out longtime residents as transplants are better positioned to shoulder the financial burden.&nbsp;</p>
  418.  
  419.  
  420.  
  421. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Home prices increased at an unprecedented rate following the start of the Covid-19 pandemic,” <a href="https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/research-areas/working-papers/rural-housing-shift-vacation-area-home-prices-surge-post-pandemic">according to a report</a> by the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies released in December. “The proliferation of remote work, enabling households to live further from their place of employment, contributed to especially sharp home price increases in rural areas.”</p>
  422.  
  423.  
  424.  
  425. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In turn, the amount of money needed to live in rural America has dramatically risen in the same period. A <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/perfect-storm-factors-housing-crisis-110000136.html">study released last year</a> by the real estate company Redfin found that rural homebuyers need to make $74,508 to afford a monthly mortgage payment compared to $36,206 before the pandemic. That represents a 105.8% spike in the cost of homeownership in only six years. In that same time, Redfin found that rural home prices rose 61.5% despite income in rural communities rising only 33.3% over the same time.</p>
  426.  
  427.  
  428.  
  429. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Simply put, rural communities are being priced out of their own homes – and not just by new residents. Last year, <a href="https://www.fanniemae.com/research-and-insights/publications/housing-insights/unpacking-persistent-increase-rural-housing-demand-pandemic">Fannie Mae reported</a> that “homebuyers from outside [rural communities] are driving the rise in rural housing demand – with second-home and investment purchasers making up a large share early in the pandemic, followed by buyers planning to move in from outside the region.”</p>
  430.  
  431.  
  432.  
  433. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">To put this another way, my initial hope that remote work would bring an influx of talent and a robust tax base to small towns has been dashed by the reality of greed. Wealthy investors are buying vacation homes or Airbnb-type rentals in rural communities, pricing out rural residents without ever actually living in our communities. </p>
  434.  
  435.  
  436.  
  437. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Perhaps nowhere is this more pronounced than here in Montana.&nbsp;</p>
  438.  
  439.  
  440.  
  441. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“It’s harder for a Montanan to buy a home than a Californian or a New Yorker,” More Perfect Union’s Brooke Shuman <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU2x0BmFhJI&amp;t=321s">reported in 2024</a>. This in large part because of wealthy individuals moving into the state, buying up land and pricing out Montanans in the process. In Bozeman, for example, Shuman reports the median price for a newly built single-family home is now over $900,000.</p>
  442.  
  443.  
  444.  
  445. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Meanwhile, the housing crisis on Montana’s Indian reservations is, and has long been, acute. From inadequate federal funding for tribal housing agencies, leaving them unable to maintain even the limited housing available, to complicated and confusing land ownership patterns and financing and infrastructure hurdles, “the long-standing housing shortage on Indian reservations in Montana reinforces cycles of poverty by forcing young residents to seek opportunities far from home and by discouraging financially secure citizens from returning to tribal communities,” <a href="https://montanafreepress.org/2025/09/29/how-a-chronic-housing-shortage-keeps-reservation-communities-in-montana-in-crisis/">the Montana Free Press reported last year</a>.</p>
  446.  
  447.  
  448.  
  449. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">While the circumstances in Indian Country are in many ways unique, the brain drain tribal communities experience is not. If we want rural young people to stay, or to attract professionals to serve our communities as doctors, lawyers, teachers, or police officers, we need places for them to live. Affordable places.</p>
  450.  
  451.  
  452.  
  453. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">To their credit, Montana Republicans and Democrats have come together to address this issue. In 2023, <a href="https://planning.org/planning/2026/feb/did-the-montana-miracle-answer-the-states-housing-prayers/">the bipartisan “Montana Miracle” was passed</a>. These laws required larger municipalities to allow for duplexes in single-family zones, allowed for multifamily and mixed-use dwellings in commercially zoned areas, and mandated that all cities allow accessory dwelling units.</p>
  454.  
  455.  
  456.  
  457. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The state continued to try to level the playing field in the 2025 legislative session. One law <a href="https://projects.montanafreepress.org/capitol-tracker-2025/bills/sb-243/">overrode local restrictions on building heights</a>, allowing construction of buildings six stories and taller. Another <a href="https://www.ktvh.com/news/montana-politics/montana-property-owners-start-seeing-effects-from-new-state-property-tax-laws">raised property taxes on high-value homes</a>; Governor Greg Gianforte, a Republican, estimated that about 80% of Montana’s homeowners would see a decrease in their property tax, an important relief for homeowners whose tax bills skyrocketed as property values increased far beyond what many could afford.</p>
  458.  
  459.  
  460.  
  461. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">These are steps in the right direction, but they are not enough to address the rural housing shortage. While cities like Bozeman and Butte may benefit from high-rise condo buildings, a place like Glasgow – way up on the tundra – will not. More is needed from both the public and private sectors, including more affordable single- and multi-family housing, relief and protection for renters, and mortgages which consider a homebuyer’s full financial profile – including rental payments, utility payments, and phone payments – to establish creditworthiness, as opposed to simply what is reported to credit bureaus.&nbsp;</p>
  462.  
  463.  
  464.  
  465. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">If we want rural communities to thrive, we must enact sweeping changes at the local, state, and federal level. We must offset the rising costs caused by millionaires and billionaires snatching up homes they won’t occupy for most of the year and driving up costs for the rest of us. And we must build – yes, in your back yard, and in mine.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  466.  
  467.  
  468.  
  469. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The cost of inaction is not more people living in ghost towns like Saint Marie. The cost of inaction is more Saint Maries – once-thriving rural communities that simply no longer exist.&nbsp;</p>
  470.  
  471.  
  472.  
  473. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The ghost town is an icon of Western history. Let it remain that. Invest in rural housing now, or the ghost town’s past may be rural America’s prologue.</p>
  474.  
  475.  
  476.  
  477. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  478. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-ghosts-of-housing-past-and-present/2026/06/11/">Commentary: Ghosts of Housing Past (and Present)</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  479. ]]></content:encoded>
  481. <wfw:commentRss>https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-ghosts-of-housing-past-and-present/2026/06/11/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  482. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  485. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">240051</post-id> </item>
  486. <item>
  487. <title>Superman Fans Flock to a Rural Metropolis</title>
  488. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/superman-fans-flock-to-a-rural-metropolis/2026/06/11/</link>
  489. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/superman-fans-flock-to-a-rural-metropolis/2026/06/11/#respond</comments>
  491. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Keith Roysdon]]></dc:creator>
  492. <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  493. <category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
  494. <category><![CDATA[The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy]]></category>
  495. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240701</guid>
  496.  
  497. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?w=1653&amp;ssl=1 1653w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  498. <p>From June 12-14th, Metropolis, IL will hold its annual Superman Celebration, featuring franchise actors, vendors, a carnival, and fans from across the world. </p>
  499. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/superman-fans-flock-to-a-rural-metropolis/2026/06/11/">Superman Fans Flock to a Rural Metropolis</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  500. ]]></description>
  501. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?w=1653&amp;ssl=1 1653w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/superman-statue.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  502. <p class="wp-block-paragraph" style="font-size:14px"><em>Editor’s Note: A version of this story also appeared in&nbsp;The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, a newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, retrospectives, recommendations, and more. You can&nbsp;</em><a href="https://dailyyonder.com/#signup"><em>join the mailing list at the bottom of this article</em></a><em>&nbsp;to receive future editions in your inbox</em>.</p>
  503.  
  504.  
  505.  
  506. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you saw the 2025 hit “<a href="https://dailyyonder.com/a-good-old-fashioned-superman-story-for-our-modern-times/2025/07/24/">Superman</a>” movie, you saw a string of fierce battles in the skies above the hero’s adopted home of Metropolis, as Superman took on giant creatures and monstrous villains.&nbsp;</p>
  507.  
  508.  
  509.  
  510. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Luckily, things haven’t been as calamitous in Metropolis, Illinois, which was officially recognized as “Superman’s Hometown” more than 50 years ago. But the community is expecting some excitement this weekend, as the annual Superman Celebration brings thousands of people to town.</p>
  511.  
  512.  
  513.  
  514. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The small city of about 6,000 people is in Massac County, in the southern tip of Illinois. In 1972, the Illinois Legislature passed a resolution recognizing the connection between the fictional Metropolis and the Illinois city. And that honor isn’t something the city of Metropolis takes lightly.</p>
  515.  
  516.  
  517.  
  518. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“It’s the perfect small American town with a Superman spin,” said Morgan Hambrick Siebert, curator of the <a href="https://supermuseum.com/">Super Museum</a> and daughter of its founder, Jim Hambrick. </p>
  519.  
  520.  
  521.  
  522. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Each June, the Superman Celebration draws people who make their own elaborate costumes or just come to celebrate everything related to the hero. One of the main draws is meeting actors from different generations of Superman TV shows and movies, who have frequented the event as special guests since the celebration began in 1979. The festival (which this year runs from June 12-14th) also features vendors selling food, crafts, comic book memorabilia, and more, as well as a carnival with rides and games.</p>
  523.  
  524.  
  525.  
  526. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The tourism office for Metropolis and Massac County says they regularly get visitors from several states away, with some super fans traveling from as far away as Australia and Japan.</p>
  527.  
  528.  
  529.  
  530. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>A Rural Metropolis</strong></p>
  531.  
  532.  
  533.  
  534. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In the Superman universe, Metropolis bears an uncanny resemblance to New York City. Rural Metropolis, Illinois, might have more in common with Smallville, Kansas, the fictional community where Superman/Clark Kent was raised. But that didn’t stop the Illinois city, which was founded 99 years before the character Superman was created, from forging a powerful bond with the Man of Steel. </p>
  535.  
  536.  
  537.  
  538. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The first Superman comic was published in 1938. The character was invented in Cleveland, Ohio, by the team of writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Schuster.</p>
  539.  
  540.  
  541.  
  542. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The character grew increasingly popular and ubiquitous over the years, with several comic book titles, newspaper comic strips, a radio show, animated short films, and the “Adventures of Superman” TV series, which ran from 1952 to 1958. The Richard Donner-directed “Superman” film starring Christopher Reeve became a hit in 1978.</p>
  543.  
  544.  
  545.  
  546. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But even before the 1978&nbsp; film, residents and officials of Metropolis, Illinois, were exploring how they could capitalize on its Superman connection.</p>
  547.  
  548.  
  549.  
  550. <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="465" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/super-museum-big.jpeg?resize=780%2C465&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240703" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/super-museum-big.jpeg?w=1160&amp;ssl=1 1160w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/super-museum-big.jpeg?resize=760%2C453&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/super-museum-big.jpeg?resize=768%2C457&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/super-museum-big.jpeg?resize=1024%2C610&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/super-museum-big.jpeg?resize=780%2C465&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/super-museum-big.jpeg?resize=400%2C238&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/super-museum-big.jpeg?resize=706%2C421&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/super-museum-big.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Super Museum in Metropolis, IL houses 75,000 pieces of Superman memorabilia. (Credit: Photo courtesy of the Super Museum)</figcaption></figure>
  551.  
  552.  
  553.  
  554. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">One ambitious but ultimately failed attempt was a proposed amusement park in Metropolis and Massac County, <a href="https://supermuseum.com/blog/f/the-superman-theme-park-that-almost-was-a-look-back">according</a> to the curators of the Super Museum. The Illinois Legislature endorsed the city’s &#8220;Project Superman&#8221; in April 1972 – recognizing the small city as Superman’s home – and design work began on a 1,000-acre Amazing World of Superman amusement park. Besides a 100-foot-tall statue of Superman, the park was to include a main street symbolizing Smallville, a movie theater, shopping mall, hotel, moving sidewalk, and elements familiar to Superman fans, including Superman’s <a href="https://www.dc.com/blog/2025/07/07/where-in-the-world-is-the-fortress-of-solitude?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Newspack%20Newsletter%20%28240589%29&amp;utm_source=d1c8c07805&amp;utm_source=Center+for+Rural+Strategies+-+The+Daily+Yonder+and+Rural+Assembly&amp;utm_campaign=93f9891cc7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_06_02_12_12&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_-93f9891cc7-100971656&amp;mc_cid=93f9891cc7&amp;mc_eid=9037e6886d">Fortress of Solitude</a>.</p>
  555.  
  556.  
  557.  
  558. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Newspapers, particularly those in the Southern Midwest, covered the development – or lack of development – of the amusement park beginning in April 1972. A visitors’ center opened and Superman souvenirs were available, but grand plans for the large park and towering statue never became reality, in part because oil shortages in the 1970s doomed construction of an interstate highway that would have provided easy access to the park.&nbsp;</p>
  559.  
  560.  
  561.  
  562. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">By 1974, the Associated Press circulated stories – with headlines like “Amazing World of Superman Turns Out to Be a Super Flop’ – noting that the project was put into mothballs and exhibit materials were auctioned off.&nbsp;</p>
  563.  
  564.  
  565.  
  566. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But the citizens of Metropolis didn’t give up. In 1978, the city held its first annual Superman Celebration. In 1993, they raised a 15-foot bronze statue of the hero. That same year, Superman enthusiast and lifelong collector Jim Hambrick opened the Super Museum, which boasts 75,000 pieces of Superman memorabilia covering the DC Comics publications as well as radio, TV, and movie incarnations.</p>
  567.  
  568.  
  569.  
  570. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Building the Super Museum</strong></p>
  571.  
  572.  
  573.  
  574. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It was probably inevitable that Jim Hambrick would one day have a Superman museum.</p>
  575.  
  576.  
  577.  
  578. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“He collected for 65 years, since he was five years old,” said his daughter, Morgan Hambrick Siebert. His first piece was a 1954 lunchbox featuring Superman fighting a giant robot.&nbsp;</p>
  579.  
  580.  
  581.  
  582. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Jim Hambrick found out early on that people would pay to see anything related to Superman, Supergirl, and many affiliated characters. “When he did begin collecting in earnest, by the time he was 10 or 11, he was asking kids to pay a nickel to come into his room to see his collection,” said Hambrick Siebert. </p>
  583.  
  584.  
  585.  
  586. <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="518" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/museum-display.jpeg?resize=780%2C518&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240704" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/museum-display.jpeg?w=960&amp;ssl=1 960w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/museum-display.jpeg?resize=760%2C505&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/museum-display.jpeg?resize=768%2C510&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/museum-display.jpeg?resize=780%2C518&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/museum-display.jpeg?resize=400%2C266&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/museum-display.jpeg?resize=706%2C469&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/museum-display.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A display case at the Super Museum in Metropolis, IL. The museum&#8217;s collection was the life&#8217;s work of its founder, Jim Hambrick. (Credit: Photo courtesy of the Super Museum)</figcaption></figure>
  587.  
  588.  
  589.  
  590. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Jim Hambrick grew up in Southern California, where he kept an eye out for memorabilia. In addition to collecting thousands of commercial products like toys and merchandise, he also acquired original movie and TV costumes and props, including Superman suits and other costumes worn onscreen.&nbsp;</p>
  591.  
  592.  
  593.  
  594. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Hambrick came to know Superman creators Siegel and Shuster and actors like Noel Neill and Jack Larsen, who played Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen in the 1950s Superman series.</p>
  595.  
  596.  
  597.  
  598. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“My dad was in newspaper headlines (for his collection) and he worked with DC and Warner Bros., and Metropolis reached out to him,” she said. “We moved here from California 33 years ago. I’ve been helping my dad run the museum since I was seven, and 16 years ago I took over.&nbsp;</p>
  599.  
  600.  
  601.  
  602. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Hambrick died in December 2024, leaving behind a lifetime of collecting Superman memorabilia – and an entire museum to showcase it.</p>
  603.  
  604.  
  605.  
  606. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Superfans Return</strong></p>
  607.  
  608.  
  609.  
  610. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">As this year’s Superman Celebration begins in Metropolis, the festival’s meaning is found in the people who keep it going year after year.</p>
  611.  
  612.  
  613.  
  614. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This includes people like Karla Ogle, a longtime Metropolis florist who has been the co-chair of the Superman Celebration for 25 years. Despite this role, Ogle has a surprising confession.</p>
  615.  
  616.  
  617.  
  618. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">&nbsp;“I’m not a big Superman person. I don’t have the first Superman thing on display in my house,” she told the Daily Yonder. “When I tell people that, they say, ‘You’re kidding.’”</p>
  619.  
  620.  
  621.  
  622. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">She may not be “a Superman person,” but she certainly is a fan of Metropolis. “I was born and raised here, I love being here, I love having a business in Metropolis,” she said.&nbsp;</p>
  623.  
  624.  
  625.  
  626. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Ogle said the festival has helped turn Metropolis into more than just a tourist stop.</p>
  627.  
  628.  
  629.  
  630. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The town has a lot of charm and it has a lot of history. And with the Superman festival, people say, I’ve been coming for 15 or 20 years. A couple of people have moved here when they retired because they loved the town.”</p>
  631.  
  632.  
  633.  
  634. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">To see all of the festivities planned for this year’s Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois, you can check out the event’s <a href="https://www.supermancelebration.net/">website</a>.</p>
  635.  
  636.  
  637.  
  638. <p class="wp-block-paragraph" style="font-size:16px"><em>Keith Roysdon is the author of two novels, “Seven Angels” and “That October,” and co-author of four award-winning true crime books. His fiction, news articles, and pop culture pieces are widely published.</em></p>
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  655. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This article first appeared in&nbsp;<strong>The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy</strong>, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more. <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/contact-us/subscribe-daily-yonder/#good-bad-elegy">Join the mailing list</a> today to have future editions delivered straight to your inbox.</p>
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  694. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/superman-fans-flock-to-a-rural-metropolis/2026/06/11/">Superman Fans Flock to a Rural Metropolis</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  702. <item>
  703. <title>Food Stamp Work Rules Don’t Increase Employment, Researchers Say</title>
  704. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/food-stamp-work-rules-dont-increase-employment-researchers-say/2026/06/11/</link>
  705. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/food-stamp-work-rules-dont-increase-employment-researchers-say/2026/06/11/#respond</comments>
  707. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Taylor Sisk / KFF Health News]]></dc:creator>
  708. <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  709. <category><![CDATA[Food]]></category>
  710. <category><![CDATA[repub]]></category>
  711. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=239853</guid>
  712.  
  713. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  714. <p>This story was originally published by KFF Health News. A half-dozen cars had been in the queue for nearly four hours by the time the House of Hope mobile food pantry line in Delbarton, West Virginia, began to move. Seventy or so more idled behind them by 11:30 a.m., when the food distribution began. The plan [&#8230;]</p>
  715. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/food-stamp-work-rules-dont-increase-employment-researchers-say/2026/06/11/">Food Stamp Work Rules Don’t Increase Employment, Researchers Say</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  716. ]]></description>
  717. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SNAP_04-scaled.webp?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  718. <p class="has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph"><em>This story was originally published by <a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/medicaid/food-stamps-snap-work-requirements-hunger-west-virginia-foodbanks/">KFF Health News</a></em>.</p>
  719.  
  720.  
  721.  
  722. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">A half-dozen cars had been in the queue for nearly four hours by the time the House of Hope mobile food pantry line in Delbarton, West Virginia, began to move. Seventy or so more idled behind them by 11:30 a.m., when the food distribution began.</p>
  723.  
  724.  
  725.  
  726. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The plan was to begin handing out boxes of groceries at 11, but the&nbsp;<a href="https://facinghunger.org/">Facing Hunger Foodbank</a>&nbsp;truck delivering the food blew a tire en route. No one complained.</p>
  727.  
  728.  
  729.  
  730. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Perry Hall was among those waiting. His wife, Lilly Hall, volunteers with the distribution team. Perry has been dealing with a form of cancer called multiple myeloma. The Halls get by on around $1,500 a month from his Social Security benefits, plus assistance from the federal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a>, or SNAP. But because of her age, Lilly, 59, recently became subject to new SNAP work requirements and at risk of losing her benefits.</p>
  731.  
  732.  
  733.  
  734. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">As part of the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act, all “able-bodied adults” 64 or younger who don’t have dependents and don’t work, volunteer, or participate in job training at least 80 hours a month are now restricted to three months of benefits every three years from SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. Previously, the federal requirement applied to those 54 or younger. The new rule, which went into effect in November, also applies to parents of children 14 or older. And it removed exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and young adults who’ve aged out of foster care.</p>
  735.  
  736.  
  737.  
  738. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Proponents of work requirements argue that they incentivize people who are “work-ready” to seek and keep jobs, reducing dependence on government assistance and upholding the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2025/06/myth-vs-fact-the-one-big-beautiful-bill/">dignity of work</a>.”</p>
  739.  
  740.  
  741.  
  742. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Rhonda Rogombé serves as health and safety net policy analyst for the&nbsp;<a href="https://wvpolicy.org/">West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy</a>. She and her colleagues have studied the effects of SNAP work rules and found that requiring recipients to work does not lower an area’s unemployment rate.</p>
  743.  
  744.  
  745.  
  746. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Previous work requirements were suspended nationwide during the covid pandemic and reinstated in fall 2023. The researchers found that the average number of people employed in Mingo County each month actually went down after the requirement was reimposed.</p>
  747.  
  748.  
  749.  
  750. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">A 2018 federal research project that examined several data sources, including SNAP data from nine states, found that work requirements “have no impact on labor force participation and the number of hours worked.”</p>
  751.  
  752.  
  753.  
  754. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">There are a number of possible explanations, Rogombé said, “but when people are hungry, they’re not able to support themselves. When people are hungry, it’s harder to focus at work. It’s harder to engage in work activity, and we think that that’s part of it.”</p>
  755.  
  756.  
  757.  
  758. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Jobs are scarce in this southern West Virginia county. Lilly Hall found work at a Delbarton restaurant. But it’s unpaid until a waitress position opens — enough to preserve her benefits, but far from ideal.</p>
  759.  
  760.  
  761.  
  762. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">On that mild Wednesday in late March, House of Hope provided chicken, eggs, bread, potatoes, fresh fruit and vegetables, and milk.</p>
  763.  
  764.  
  765.  
  766. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Among those in line were older residents and “some young people that have lost their way and they can’t get work and they just need help,” said Timothy Treleven, who operates the pantry with his wife, Christine, and Gail Lendearo.</p>
  767.  
  768.  
  769.  
  770. <figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2026/04/SNAP_01.jpg?w=780&#038;ssl=1" alt="An older man with white hair and beard smiles at the camera." class="wp-image-2229022"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Timothy Treleven helps run the House of Hope food pantry in Delbarton, West Virginia. The pantry&#8217;s clients include older residents and “some young people that have lost their way and they can’t get work and they just need help.” (Photo by Taylor Sisk/KFF Health News)</figcaption></figure>
  771.  
  772.  
  773.  
  774. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">House of Hope’s scheduled distribution day is the last Saturday of each month — supplemented by occasional weekday Facing Hunger visits — as money from monthly checks begins to run out and cupboards go bare.</p>
  775.  
  776.  
  777.  
  778. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">On a typical Saturday, pantry staff and volunteers hand out up to 400 boxes of food.</p>
  779.  
  780.  
  781.  
  782. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“It’s an honor to do this,” Lendearo said. “It’s a blessing.”</p>
  783.  
  784.  
  785.  
  786. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Perry Hall’s cancer is now in remission, but for a while his treatment required that he and Lilly travel back and forth, 4½ hours each way, to Morgantown. The couple’s van couldn’t make the trip, so they paid a friend for rides.</p>
  787.  
  788.  
  789.  
  790. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Mingo’s population is just under 22,000, down from around 27,000 in 2010. It once flourished, fueled by coal. Williamson, the county seat, was home to an opera house and businesses operated by immigrants from Italy, Russia, and Syria. The region is still referred to as “the coalfields,” but little is mined here these days.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/mingocountywestvirginia/PST120224">A quarter of residents live in poverty</a>.</p>
  791.  
  792.  
  793.  
  794. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Rogombé and her colleagues found that Mingo County residents face significant barriers to securing what few jobs are available. These include unreported physical and mental impairments, housing insecurity, and a lack of high school diplomas and identification documents.</p>
  795.  
  796.  
  797.  
  798. <figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2026/04/SNAP_03.jpg?w=780&#038;ssl=1" alt="An exterior photograph of a single story building." class="wp-image-2229034"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">On a typical distribution day, the House of Hope food pantry in Delbarton, West Virginia, hands out up to 400 boxes of food. (Photo by Taylor Sisk/KFF Health News)</figcaption></figure>
  799.  
  800.  
  801.  
  802. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Filing the paperwork to receive benefits or to confirm compliance is difficult for many residents. The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy’s research found that about 1 in 4 lack reliable internet access.</p>
  803.  
  804.  
  805.  
  806. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Additional changes lie ahead for the SNAP program. Currently, the federal government and the states share administrative costs equally, but in October states will assume 75% of those costs. And beginning in October 2027, they’ll be required to pay additional costs based on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/congressional-delay-of-snap-cost-shift-urgently-needed-to-protect-food">error rates</a>.</p>
  807.  
  808.  
  809.  
  810. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Kentucky, like West Virginia, is among the poorer states that will be most affected by the new requirements and costs. The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy estimates that&nbsp;<a href="https://kypolicy.org/snap-changes-in-the-obba/">up to 114,000 residents risk losing SNAP benefits</a>&nbsp;with the expanded work requirements.</p>
  811.  
  812.  
  813.  
  814. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Jessica Klein, a researcher with the center, worries about the consequences. “We know SNAP has an impact on health, and not just because it decreases food insecurity,” she said. It worsens blood pressure rates, obesity, medication adherence, and more.</p>
  815.  
  816.  
  817.  
  818. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">With the additional financial burden placed on states, “I think what we’ll see is some states changing rules that impact participation in order to have a smaller, more affordable program,” Klein said. “My fear is that some states will choose not to operate SNAP at all.”</p>
  819.  
  820.  
  821.  
  822. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In Mingo County, folks are stepping up. At least eight food pantries offer groceries to those in need.</p>
  823.  
  824.  
  825.  
  826. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Janet Gibson runs the Blessing Barn pantry in the Ben Creek community. “I can go from one end of the creek to the other” and tell you everyone’s name and a little something about them, she said. She takes pride in feeding her people.</p>
  827.  
  828.  
  829.  
  830. <figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2026/04/SNAP_02.jpg?w=780&#038;ssl=1" alt="An older woman wearing a white and red sports jacket sits comfortably for a photo." class="wp-image-2229025"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Janet Gibson runs the Blessing Barn food pantry in the West Virginia community of Ben Creek. She says transportation challenges are a barrier to finding and maintaining work in the county. (Photo by Taylor Sisk/KFF Health News)</figcaption></figure>
  831.  
  832.  
  833.  
  834. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Gibson said it can be hard to find even volunteer opportunities in the county, largely because of transportation challenges. A look at a local map can be misleading: A couple of dozen miles into a holler or up a ridge could take an hour or more.</p>
  835.  
  836.  
  837.  
  838. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Whether you’re working full-time or not, you’re still spinning out gas to get to work,” Gibson said, “and gas ain’t cheap now.”</p>
  839.  
  840.  
  841.  
  842. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">A single mother of three, Trista Shankle of Paducah, Kentucky, isn’t subject to the new SNAP requirements, but she worries about the fragility of the social safety net. She overcame challenges, is earning a master’s degree in social work, and works for an organization that connects community college students with&nbsp;<a href="https://acf.gov/ofa/programs/temporary-assistance-needy-families-tanf">Temporary Assistance for Needy Families</a>&nbsp;benefits. Her family receives SNAP, Medicaid, housing support, and assistance from the USDA’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic">Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children</a>. If any one of those is cut, she said, she may have to drop out of school.</p>
  843.  
  844.  
  845.  
  846. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Shankle is certain she wouldn’t have advanced to where she is today without the benefits she and her family have received: “They bring a sense of calm and comfort. I know that my kids aren’t going to go hungry.”</p>
  847.  
  848.  
  849.  
  850. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The first week in April, Lilly Hall reported for work at Black Bear Trails Restaurant. She’s grateful for the opportunity. And when a waitress slot opens, “I’ll snag that position so quick it’ll make your head flip.”</p>
  851.  
  852.  
  853.  
  854. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  855.  
  856.  
  857.  
  858. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a>&nbsp;is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.</em></p>
  859. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/food-stamp-work-rules-dont-increase-employment-researchers-say/2026/06/11/">Food Stamp Work Rules Don’t Increase Employment, Researchers Say</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  860. ]]></content:encoded>
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  863. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  866. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">239853</post-id> </item>
  867. <item>
  868. <title>Illinois Is “Not Quite Ready” to Pass Data Center Regulations Despite Public Pressure</title>
  869. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/illinois-is-not-quite-ready-to-pass-data-center-regulations-despite-public-pressure/2026/06/10/</link>
  870. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/illinois-is-not-quite-ready-to-pass-data-center-regulations-despite-public-pressure/2026/06/10/#respond</comments>
  872. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Julia Tilton and Ilana Newman]]></dc:creator>
  873. <pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 10:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
  874. <category><![CDATA[Community & Economic Development]]></category>
  875. <category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
  876. <category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
  877. <category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
  878. <category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
  879. <category><![CDATA[Data Centers]]></category>
  880. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240713</guid>
  881.  
  882. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  883. <p>The Illinois General Assembly’s 2026 session wrapped up without advancing the POWER Act, a bill that proposes regulation on data centers. On June 5, 2026, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced a pause on new data center tax incentives and directed the General Assembly to revisit the data center issue during their veto session later this [&#8230;]</p>
  884. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/illinois-is-not-quite-ready-to-pass-data-center-regulations-despite-public-pressure/2026/06/10/">Illinois Is “Not Quite Ready” to Pass Data Center Regulations Despite Public Pressure</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  885. ]]></description>
  886. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-38-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  887. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Illinois General Assembly’s 2026 session wrapped up without advancing the <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/as-illinois-lawmakers-debate-power-act-concerns-about-data-centers-spill-into-rural-communities/2026/05/26/">POWER Act</a>, a bill that proposes regulation on data centers. On June 5, 2026, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker <a href="https://gov-pritzker-newsroom.prezly.com/gov-pritzker-pauses-new-data-center-tax-incentives">announced</a> a pause on new data center tax incentives and directed the General Assembly to revisit the data center issue during their veto session later this year. Data center development has recently ramped up in the state’s <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/illinois-is-taking-a-close-look-at-the-potential-effects-of-the-data-center-boom/2026/03/23/">rural communities</a>.</p>
  888.  
  889.  
  890.  
  891. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I am directing my administration to pause the processing of data center agreements while we continue working with the General Assembly and stakeholders on a comprehensive framework that protects affordability, safeguards our natural resources, and ensures responsible growth across Illinois,” said the Governor <a href="https://gov-pritzker-newsroom.prezly.com/gov-pritzker-pauses-new-data-center-tax-incentives">in a press release</a>.&nbsp;</p>
  892.  
  893.  
  894.  
  895. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The direction from the Governor comes after months of debate on the POWER Act in the state House and Senate. The bill’s acronym stands for Protecting Our Water and Energy Resources, and imposes regulations on data centers’ water usage, efficiency, and transparency. It also requires the facilities to bring their own clean energy to the grid and not pass on infrastructure costs to consumers.</p>
  896.  
  897.  
  898.  
  899. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Illinois House of Representatives Leader Robyn Gabel introduced the bill in the House in February of 2026, but by mid-May, she said, “The sentiment was that we weren’t quite ready.”&nbsp;</p>
  900.  
  901.  
  902.  
  903. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“When you first put any big issue on the table, it takes a while to get these passed. It doesn&#8217;t usually happen the first year,” Representative Gabel told the Daily Yonder. While there were multiple hearings in the House and Senate during the 2026 legislative session, Gabel said there will be more stakeholder meetings this summer to prepare for the Assembly’s November veto session. She said lawmakers will prepare language ahead of the session and look to attach the POWER Act to a vehicle bill, or draft legislation that’s further along in the process, as an amendment.&nbsp;</p>
  904.  
  905.  
  906.  
  907. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I’m pretty confident that we’ll be able to get this done in November,” Gabel said. “It always helps to have the governor behind you when you&#8217;re working on legislation.”</p>
  908.  
  909.  
  910.  
  911. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>POWER Act Supporters &#8220;Disappointed</strong>&#8220;</h3>
  912.  
  913.  
  914.  
  915. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">For proponents of the POWER Act, the results of the spring session are frustrating, said Andrew Rehn, Prairie Rivers Network’s director of climate policy. Prairie Rivers Network and other nonprofit partners have held well-attended public meetings about data centers and the POWER Act across <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/as-illinois-lawmakers-debate-power-act-concerns-about-data-centers-spill-into-rural-communities/2026/05/26/">East-Central Illinois</a> and the rest of the state.&nbsp;</p>
  916.  
  917.  
  918.  
  919. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240715" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DSC04908-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Andrew Rehn talks about the POWER Act to a group of residents in Bloomington, Illinois, in April 2026. (Photo by Ilana Newman/The Daily Yonder)</em></figcaption></figure>
  920.  
  921.  
  922.  
  923. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Ultimately, we left disappointed,” Rehn said, noting that the POWER Act is “wildly popular” across the state. An <a href="https://mcusercontent.com/e017a4e8b212c413f79590f74/files/a1b57d99-dc3a-d2b5-27cd-1e825b6e1133/ICJC_Stakeholder_Memo_F04.10.26.pdf">April poll</a> by the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, of which Prairie Rivers Network is a member, found that 68% of Illinois voters support the POWER Act, across demographic and partisan lines.&nbsp;</p>
  924.  
  925.  
  926.  
  927. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">As data center proposals continue to crop up, Rehn noted that projects approved between now and the veto session will be able to move forward without any regulations surrounding transparency or the safeguarding of water and energy resources. He stressed the timeliness of getting something passed. According to a <a href="https://virginia.app.box.com/s/jy084jtlw9dlvawo10xoizrcqpxm40eb">January analysis</a> from the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, there are currently 115 operational data centers and 67 proposed data centers in Illinois.</p>
  928.  
  929.  
  930.  
  931. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“This isn&#8217;t one of those, ‘let&#8217;s get these protections in place at some point,’ you know, this isn&#8217;t a long-term correction type thing,” Rehn said. “This is pretty urgent for these communities.”&nbsp;</p>
  932.  
  933.  
  934.  
  935. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240716" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DDN-POWER-Act-Lobby-Day-23-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>May 30, 2026, POWER Act Lobby Day crowd at the State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. (Photo courtesy of Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition)</em></figcaption></figure>
  936.  
  937.  
  938.  
  939. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">More than <a href="https://www.multistate.us/insider/2026/2/20/state-data-center-legislation-in-2026-tackles-energy-and-tax-issues">30 states</a> have proposed data center legislation in 2026, with at least <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/fiscal/which-states-are-banning-data-centers">14 states</a> considering temporary bans on the facilities.</p>
  940.  
  941.  
  942.  
  943. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">&nbsp;In April, Maine lawmakers became the <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/maine-is-set-to-ban-data-centers-becoming-the-first-state-in-the-nation-to-do-so/2026/04/15/">first in the nation</a> to pass a moratorium on data centers, only to have the bill <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/maine-governor-vetoes-first-in-nation-data-center-moratorium-bill-greenlights-rural-development/2026/04/27/">vetoed by the Governor</a> later that month. Earlier this month, New York state lawmakers <a href="https://www.theverge.com/policy/944041/new-york-data-center-moratorium">passed a one-year moratorium</a> on new data centers that also sets up environmental and transparency guardrails on the facilities. It now goes to Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, who in May <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/new-yorks-governor-doesnt-support-statewide-data-center-moratorium/">indicated</a> that she would not support a statewide data center ban, per <em>Politico’s E&amp;E News</em>.&nbsp;</p>
  944.  
  945.  
  946.  
  947. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“There’s not a state that I’m aware of where elected officials, both in state legislatures and in governors’ mansions, are not feeling the heat and the need to demonstrate that they are on the case,” said Jackson Morris, the director of state power sector policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council.&nbsp; “It&#8217;s almost necessary if you want to stay in office, you’ve got to demonstrate you’re at least trying.”</p>
  948.  
  949.  
  950.  
  951. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In May, a Gallup poll found that <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx">7 in 10 Americans</a> oppose data centers being built in their area. Yet at the federal level, regulatory action on data centers has been minimal. While the Trump administration released a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/ratepayer-protection-pledge-proclamation/">Ratepayer Protection Pledge</a> in March, intended to shield American households from increasing energy costs associated with data centers, Congress has yet to take legislative action to enforce nationwide regulation on data centers.&nbsp;</p>
  952.  
  953.  
  954.  
  955. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We’re not going to see the feds come in and save this,” said Rehn. “We’re just going to see [data center] proposals continue. I struggle to imagine that this cools off. It feels like what’s needed to cool it off is some sort of response.”</p>
  956. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/illinois-is-not-quite-ready-to-pass-data-center-regulations-despite-public-pressure/2026/06/10/">Illinois Is “Not Quite Ready” to Pass Data Center Regulations Despite Public Pressure</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  957. ]]></content:encoded>
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  960. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  963. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">240713</post-id> </item>
  964. <item>
  965. <title>Ozarks Notebook: Rural Cemeteries Shift in Changing Times </title>
  966. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/ozarks-notebook-rural-cemeteries-shift-in-changing-times/2026/06/10/</link>
  967. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/ozarks-notebook-rural-cemeteries-shift-in-changing-times/2026/06/10/#respond</comments>
  969. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Kaitlyn McConnell]]></dc:creator>
  970. <pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  971. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  972. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240277</guid>
  973.  
  974. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  975. <p>Cemeteries are inherently about history, filled with names and dates folks thought would never be forgotten – or so it says on the stones.&#160; For generations, those places were integrated into community life. People seemingly stayed closer to where they were from, establishing bonds that, today, aren’t quite the same as folks move away. In [&#8230;]</p>
  976. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/ozarks-notebook-rural-cemeteries-shift-in-changing-times/2026/06/10/">Ozarks Notebook: Rural Cemeteries Shift in Changing Times </a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  977. ]]></description>
  978. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Randy-Ridgway-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  979. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Cemeteries are inherently about history, filled with names and dates folks thought would never be forgotten – or so it says on the stones.&nbsp;</p>
  980.  
  981.  
  982.  
  983. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">For generations, those places were integrated into community life. People seemingly stayed closer to where they were from, establishing bonds that, today, aren’t quite the same as folks move away. In recent times, aging volunteer boards often oversee cemeteries’ existence, and many are struggling for donations to help cover the cost of mowing and maintenance.</p>
  984.  
  985.  
  986.  
  987. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">On the flip side, the internet has opened a whole new world of interest in the topic. Websites such as <a href="https://www.findagrave.com">Find a Grave</a> allow instant access to information for research in ways never before possible, and social media influencers share stories of people they “meet” in cemeteries by cleaning their stones.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  988.  
  989.  
  990.  
  991. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“There is kind of a split, because the people who are excited about cemeteries aren&#8217;t really excited about a struggling rural one where many of the stones aren&#8217;t carved,” noted <a href="https://www.ozarksalive.com/stories/abby-burnett-shares-arkansas-cemeteries-in-new-book">Abby Burnett</a>, an authority on Arkansas cemeteries who has written two books on the topic. “They want the carvings, the statues, the angels, the things of the story behind them, and some of the rural ones are a lot harder to get that information.”</p>
  992.  
  993.  
  994.  
  995. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Does that shift matter? Spoiler alert: I don’t know. This essay does not present any answers, but rather perspectives on how those seemingly countless rural cemeteries have lived their own legacies – or died, in cases where they lie overgrown and forgotten.&nbsp;</p>
  996.  
  997.  
  998.  
  999. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Bonds of the Past Give Way to the Present </strong></h3>
  1000.  
  1001.  
  1002.  
  1003. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In rural areas, I often drive by those fenced gardens of memories and think about the lives of people we will never meet, of a world that is much different from our own. They are everywhere here in the Ozarks, a reality probably similar in other rural parts of the country, too.&nbsp;</p>
  1004.  
  1005.  
  1006.  
  1007. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But they often struggle for resources – people and money – to keep them up.&nbsp;</p>
  1008.  
  1009.  
  1010.  
  1011. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That was never more clear than a couple of weeks ago, when I was in rural Arkansas to meet with a caretaker of a cemetery for this column. The very same day, I received an email from someone else regarding another Ozarks cemetery in need of support.&nbsp;</p>
  1012.  
  1013.  
  1014.  
  1015. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Country cemeteries, both large and small, are becoming more and more difficult to maintain as the caretakers are aging and dying without having younger persons in the wings to take over,” he wrote to me of an example in rural Missouri.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  1016.  
  1017.  
  1018.  
  1019. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="585" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=780%2C585&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240281" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery.jpg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Copening-Cemetery-1296x972.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Copening Church is located in rural Webster County, Missouri. The congregation no longer meets, but its cemetery remains a responsibility for those who oversee its care. (Photo by Kaitlyn McConnell)</figcaption></figure>
  1020.  
  1021.  
  1022.  
  1023. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In my mind, the change is based on evolving local connections.&nbsp;</p>
  1024.  
  1025.  
  1026.  
  1027. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Just a few generations ago, death care was largely done in the home. Friends and family would gather at the home of the deceased, where they would sit up overnight with the body and lay it out after a person passed, following a series of superstitions (from stopping clocks to keeping cats away). They built the coffin and dug the grave. Tombstones were sometimes hand-made, but other times were ordered from far-off vendors&nbsp; or local engravers.&nbsp;</p>
  1028.  
  1029.  
  1030.  
  1031. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Given those bonds, it made sense that connections carried through to cemeteries. It was often seen during Decoration Day – what has evolved today into Memorial Day – when friends and family gathered at cemeteries for reunion-like events with food and focus on those who’d gone before.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  1032.  
  1033.  
  1034.  
  1035. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="444" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day.jpg?resize=780%2C444&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240279" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day.jpg?resize=1296%2C738&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day.jpg?resize=760%2C433&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day.jpg?resize=768%2C438&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day.jpg?resize=1536%2C875&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day.jpg?resize=1200%2C684&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day.jpg?resize=1024%2C583&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day.jpg?resize=780%2C444&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day.jpg?resize=400%2C228&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day.jpg?resize=706%2C402&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day.jpg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Decoration-Day-1296x738.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Historically, Decoration Day – held on May 30 – was a time of gathering at cemeteries across the Ozarks. Attendees brought live and paper flowers to decorate graves, and food was often enjoyed together. This image is from that gathering in rural Ozark County, Missouri, around 1912. (Courtesy of the Donna Walker Collection)</figcaption></figure>
  1036.  
  1037.  
  1038.  
  1039. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That means the general maintenance such as mowing (and its associated expense), but also caring for overseeing stones that may be falling over or deteriorating. Rural migration has also disrupted long-held connections wherein when people remained close to the communities where they were rooted and raised. And it’s my sense that the diminishing care for rural cemeteries is compounded by the rise of cremation, which may mean fewer connections with gravesites overall going forward.&nbsp;</p>
  1040.  
  1041.  
  1042.  
  1043. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">So rural patterns are changing. Most cemeteries no longer have a dinner on the grounds or collaborative clean-up days, leaving their care to groups of aging people who are left responsible for what was once a community endeavor.&nbsp;</p>
  1044.  
  1045.  
  1046.  
  1047. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I will be 73 years coming up pretty quickly, and I&#8217;m one of the younger ones on the board,” Randy Ridgway, chairman of the Huntsville Cemetery Association in northwestern Arkansas, recently told me. “Finding somebody younger that&#8217;s interested and willing to do something seems to be on the decline.”</p>
  1048.  
  1049.  
  1050.  
  1051. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I met Ridgway at the cemetery where he began cleaning stones several years ago, and then he eventually got into their repair. He’s a retired dentist, and said the skill sets have distinct similarities. Working with the instruments, fitting pieces together and applying epoxies feels “perfectly normal,” he said, but “it’s on a different scale, of course.”</p>
  1052.  
  1053.  
  1054.  
  1055. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Ridgway didn’t grow up in Huntsville – he’s from farther south in Arkansas – but he has become invested in the community since he moved there decades ago. He’s frequently there caring for stones, or managing the details that come with overseeing an active cemetery. Those tasks include maintenance, where and how new graves are dug amid other tasks ,like at this time of year, when flags are placed near veterans’ stones for Memorial Day.&nbsp;</p>
  1056.  
  1057.  
  1058.  
  1059. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The bottom line to it is, Memorial Day weekend is our big money-maker of the year,” Ridgway said. “We set up down here, people come through, and we take donations for the care of the cemetery. You can track it year by year – the donations are dropping, they&#8217;re dropping, they&#8217;re dropping. Most people just basically say it&#8217;s a general decline in interest from the younger people that, you know, couldn&#8217;t care less anymore.”&nbsp;</p>
  1060.  
  1061.  
  1062.  
  1063. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That perspective tracks with other rural cemetery leaders with whom I’ve spoken. Yet it doesn’t mean that interest in cemeteries is gone.&nbsp;</p>
  1064.  
  1065.  
  1066.  
  1067. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Just ask Jessica Leroy, who lives near Dora, a tiny rural Missouri community about 135 miles east of where I spoke with Ridgway. She is the creator of “Headstone History,” a social media entity with nearly 182,000 followers on the video platform TikTok. Leroy says she was inspired by Lady Taphos, another content creator focused on cemeteries, which led her to share her grave-cleaning work and history of those people.</p>
  1068.  
  1069.  
  1070.  
  1071. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I think my followers are a balance of people who enjoy listening to the stories, and those who want to learn how to clean stones and research their own genealogy,” Leroy wrote to me. “My hope is that people will see my videos and it will inspire them to take action, the same way I felt after seeing Lady Taphos.”</p>
  1072.  
  1073.  
  1074.  
  1075. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="554" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=780%2C554&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240280" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=1296%2C920&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=760%2C539&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=768%2C545&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=1536%2C1090&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=2048%2C1454&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=1200%2C852&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=1024%2C727&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=2000%2C1420&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=780%2C554&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=400%2C284&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot.png?resize=706%2C501&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Headstone-History-screenshot-1296x920.png?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Jessica Leroy of “Headstone History” creates videos sharing how to clean gravestones, as well as the history behind the people buried by the markers. (Screenshot from TikTok)</figcaption></figure>
  1076.  
  1077.  
  1078.  
  1079. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Leroy shared that her interest in cemeteries started with her mom – who is a fellow Ozarks researcher – and then grew through researching her husband’s family tree.&nbsp;</p>
  1080.  
  1081.  
  1082.  
  1083. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That took her to “Find a Grave,” where she began uploading information, and also to cleaning stones. And that led to her creating social media content, where she shares stories of the stones and the history of the people who are buried there.&nbsp;</p>
  1084.  
  1085.  
  1086.  
  1087. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Sometimes I clean stones that I know have an interesting story, or I know there are many photos of the family available online,” she shared. “Many times I choose random stones I find interesting or feel drawn to. When I choose random graves, I usually find myself picking either forgotten children&#8217;s graves, or the graves of young mothers. These random graves usually end up telling the best stories.&nbsp;</p>
  1088.  
  1089.  
  1090.  
  1091. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Several times when picking random graves to clean, I find out later I was the one who added their information and photo to ‘Find A Grave’ many years ago. This is a sign to me I was meant to tell their story.”</p>
  1092.  
  1093.  
  1094.  
  1095. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Is It OK to Bury the Past?</strong></h3>
  1096.  
  1097.  
  1098.  
  1099. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In my mind, that’s where this all goes: to stories. Among the silk flowers and peony bushes are the stories of people who have led us to where we are today. They reflect people, very much like us, whose lives mattered and who made an impact on the world as it is today – whether we knew them personally or not.&nbsp;</p>
  1100.  
  1101.  
  1102.  
  1103. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Maybe that simple reality means cemeteries should be recognized for their historical importance, regardless of who we know there at rest. But I think it mostly is up to personal conviction. For those places to survive, it takes commitment and time from folks like Leroy and Ridgway, people who care and likely have a connection with those who rest there.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  1104.  
  1105.  
  1106.  
  1107. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I recently joined the board at Parsons Cemetery, and it has been rewarding cleaning the graves and helping maintain the cemetery, with the help of the other board members and volunteers,” Leroy told me. “Another hope I have is that my videos will get more people interested in researching genealogy and history.”&nbsp;</p>
  1108.  
  1109.  
  1110.  
  1111. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But as time ticks by, eventually cemeteries will have fewer people alive with personal connections. What is a realistic hope for smaller ones tucked along farm fields or along rural roads where no one is left who remembers the people buried there?</p>
  1112.  
  1113.  
  1114.  
  1115. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="585" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=780%2C585&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240282" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery.jpg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Rural-Ozarks-cemetery-1296x972.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Small, rural cemeteries are scattered across the Ozarks, and many are in need of funding and volunteers to manage their upkeep. (Photo by Kaitlyn McConnell) </figcaption></figure>
  1116.  
  1117.  
  1118.  
  1119. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We&#8217;ve all seen broken stones that say ‘Gone But Not Forgotten,’” said Burnett, the cemetery researcher. “And of course, they are forgotten. Once everybody who knew you (is gone), or if the story of you does not continue, we all become forgotten unless you&#8217;ve done something that leaves our name on a highway overpass or something.”</p>
  1120.  
  1121.  
  1122.  
  1123. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Maybe some people will be inspired by stories and decide it’s their time to be part of caring for a cemetery. Maybe, in other cases, these places will fade peacefully into the past.&nbsp;</p>
  1124.  
  1125.  
  1126.  
  1127. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I wouldn&#8217;t want to see that happen,” Burnett said, “but at the same time, when nature reclaims a cemetery and simply moves in, and, ultimately, the tree roots heave up those stones and there&#8217;s no information really to be lost, does it matter if it goes back to nature? Personally, I don&#8217;t think it does matter.”</p>
  1128.  
  1129.  
  1130.  
  1131. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">As they say, “dust to dust” … .</p>
  1132.  
  1133.  
  1134.  
  1135. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1136. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/ozarks-notebook-rural-cemeteries-shift-in-changing-times/2026/06/10/">Ozarks Notebook: Rural Cemeteries Shift in Changing Times </a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1137. ]]></content:encoded>
  1139. <wfw:commentRss>https://dailyyonder.com/ozarks-notebook-rural-cemeteries-shift-in-changing-times/2026/06/10/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1140. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1143. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">240277</post-id> </item>
  1144. <item>
  1145. <title>I Tried to Identify the Gayest Small Towns, but the Data Fell Apart</title>
  1146. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/i-tried-to-identify-the-gayest-small-towns-but-the-data-fell-apart/2026/06/10/</link>
  1147. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/i-tried-to-identify-the-gayest-small-towns-but-the-data-fell-apart/2026/06/10/#respond</comments>
  1149. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Sarah Alexander Melotte]]></dc:creator>
  1150. <pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:58:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1151. <category><![CDATA[Social Justice]]></category>
  1152. <category><![CDATA[The Rural Index]]></category>
  1153. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240726</guid>
  1154.  
  1155. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="733" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?fit=1024%2C733&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?w=1520&amp;ssl=1 1520w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=760%2C544&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=1296%2C928&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=768%2C550&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=1200%2C859&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=1024%2C733&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=780%2C558&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=400%2C286&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=706%2C505&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?fit=1024%2C733&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1156. <p>Editor’s Note: This post is from our data newsletter, the Rural Index, headed by Sarah Melotte, the Daily Yonder’s data reporter. Subscribe to get a weekly map or graph straight to your inbox. For this edition of the Rural Index, I tried tracking down data on rural queer people, but what I found instead was [&#8230;]</p>
  1157. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/i-tried-to-identify-the-gayest-small-towns-but-the-data-fell-apart/2026/06/10/">I Tried to Identify the Gayest Small Towns, but the Data Fell Apart</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1158. ]]></description>
  1159. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="733" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?fit=1024%2C733&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?w=1520&amp;ssl=1 1520w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=760%2C544&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=1296%2C928&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=768%2C550&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=1200%2C859&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=1024%2C733&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=780%2C558&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=400%2C286&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?resize=706%2C505&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/22vTb-1.png?fit=1024%2C733&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1160. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Editor’s Note: This post is from our data newsletter, the Rural Index, headed by Sarah Melotte, the Daily Yonder’s data reporter. </em><a href="https://dailyyonder.com/contact-us/subscribe-daily-yonder/"><em>Subscribe</em></a><em> to get a weekly map or graph straight to your inbox.</em></p>
  1161.  
  1162.  
  1163.  
  1164. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1165.  
  1166.  
  1167.  
  1168. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">For this edition of the Rural Index, I tried tracking down data on rural queer people, but what I found instead was a large information gap.</p>
  1169.  
  1170.  
  1171.  
  1172. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Last week on <a href="https://www.yonderradio.com/">Yonder Radio</a>, my colleague Ilana Newman and I dedicated a section of the radio hour to Pride Month, where we discussed the black hole that is data on rural LGBTQIA+ folks. (Ilana and I are both queer women who have spent parts of our lives in small-town America.) Because most stories about queer people focus on urban centers, I wanted to highlight where there might be surprising concentrations of queer people in America, or where their experiences might challenge stereotypes.&nbsp;</p>
  1173.  
  1174.  
  1175.  
  1176. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I had a grand vision – perhaps a listicle. I wanted to identify and map the nation’s gayest small towns. But the data didn’t hold up. While surveys on LGBTQIA+ Americans do exist, most of them do not include responses by geography, and the few that do include a measure of rurality have methodological challenges. More on that later.</p>
  1177.  
  1178.  
  1179.  
  1180. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Note: I use the term “queer” as an umbrella term for all LGBTQIA+ individuals.</em></p>
  1181.  
  1182.  
  1183.  
  1184. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">One of the oft-cited surveys on social trends comes from <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/656708/lgbtq-identification-rises.aspx">Gallup</a>, which found an increase in the number of queer-identifying respondents in their 2025 survey of more than 14,000 adults. Since Gallup began collecting data on LGBTQIA+ people over a dozen years ago, the share of the population identifying as such has nearly tripled.&nbsp;</p>
  1185.  
  1186.  
  1187.  
  1188. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Between 2023 and 2025 alone, the percentage of adults identifying as queer grew one percentage point, from 8% in 2023 to 9% in 2025, the latest year of available data. The majority of queer-identifying respondents said they were bisexual (56%), while 21% identified as gay, 14% identified as lesbian, and 13% identified as transgender. But this widely-cited Gallup data doesn’t break down where respondents live, making it impossible to perform any kind of geographic analysis.&nbsp;</p>
  1189.  
  1190.  
  1191.  
  1192. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">There is, however, a single survey on rural queer youth organized by the <a href="https://www.thetrevorproject.org/research-briefs/lgbtq-youth-in-small-towns-and-rural-areas/">Trevor Project</a>, a nonprofit organization that advocates for suicide awareness for LGBTQIA+ youth. The Trevor Project’s 2021 survey on nearly 35,000 youth found that half of queer young people in rural areas say that their community was unaccepting of them compared to only a quarter of queer youth in urban and suburban areas.&nbsp;</p>
  1193.  
  1194.  
  1195.  
  1196. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But the Trevor Project’s rural category was based on a self-identification definition of rurality, which asked how respondents would describe their community, offering an option between urban, suburban, or small town (rural). While this definition of rural is not inherently bad, it does capture a different population than the geographic definitions of rural that I use in my data analyses. People who identify as rural might have different attitudes and experiences than those who do not, even if they live in the same town, for instance.&nbsp;</p>
  1197.  
  1198.  
  1199.  
  1200. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Another source on queer people that relies on a self-identification measure of rurality is a <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10748466/">2023 paper published in Public Opinion Quarterly</a>. This analysis of data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) found that rural-identifying people are less likely to have high estimations of queer people and are less likely to support queer friendly policies than those who identify with other geographies. But the author found a “surprisingly small” effect size between the two groups, meaning that the statistically significant differences between the two groups were not that large.&nbsp;</p>
  1201.  
  1202.  
  1203.  
  1204. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Support for queer rights was measured using five items on the ANES questionnaire that asked respondents to rank how they felt about queer issues on a scale from 0 (very cool or unfavorable feelings) to 100 (very warm or favorable feelings). The author then created an index of overall support based on responses to these five ratings.&nbsp;</p>
  1205.  
  1206.  
  1207.  
  1208. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Although rural-identifying people had less favorable feelings towards queer-friendly policies and people compared to people who identified with other geographies, they still ranked above the midpoint of the index, suggesting that, on average, rural-identifying respondents were still somewhat supportive of LGBTQIA+ rights.&nbsp;</p>
  1209.  
  1210.  
  1211.  
  1212. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It probably wouldn’t be surprising, however, to learn that a greater share of people living in rural areas were unsupportive of queer rights compared to their urban and suburban counterparts, especially given the average voting patterns of nonmetro counties. But we just don’t have the data to support any clear <em>geographic</em> conclusions.</p>
  1213.  
  1214.  
  1215.  
  1216. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Census Bureau’s <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs.html">American Community Survey</a> (ACS) was the only data source I could find that could potentially allow for a geography-based analysis of rural queer people. The ACS captures county-level figures on the number of same-sex householders, but the sample sizes are so small that the margin of error is often larger than the actual estimates themselves, making it impossible for me to identify America’s gayest small towns. That’s why the map for this week’s Rural Index is just an abyss. </p>
  1217.  
  1218.  
  1219.  
  1220. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">We face two overlapping problems when it comes to data on rural queer folks. (1) Data on queer people is generally lacking. (2) Data on rural people is generally lacking. When those two populations overlap, it can be especially hard to find adequate data to describe the population.&nbsp;</p>
  1221.  
  1222.  
  1223.  
  1224. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">For better or worse, being able to describe populations is important in our world because legible groups are easier to advocate for. Information is power. And when there is a gap in information, or an abyss, if you will, it can make resources and funding hard to come by. Nonprofits and advocacy groups use data to describe the populations they serve on donor reports and grant applications, for example. It’s hard to push for policy attention when we can’t describe where people are, who they are, or what they value. </p>
  1225.  
  1226.  
  1227.  
  1228. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/>
  1229.  
  1230.  
  1231.  
  1232. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br></p>
  1233.  
  1234.  
  1235.  
  1236. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"></p>
  1237. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/i-tried-to-identify-the-gayest-small-towns-but-the-data-fell-apart/2026/06/10/">I Tried to Identify the Gayest Small Towns, but the Data Fell Apart</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1238. ]]></content:encoded>
  1240. <wfw:commentRss>https://dailyyonder.com/i-tried-to-identify-the-gayest-small-towns-but-the-data-fell-apart/2026/06/10/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1241. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1244. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">240726</post-id> </item>
  1245. <item>
  1246. <title>Appalachia’s Coalfields: The Projections Are Becoming Reality</title>
  1247. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/appalachias-coalfields-the-projections-are-becoming-reality/2026/06/09/</link>
  1248. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/appalachias-coalfields-the-projections-are-becoming-reality/2026/06/09/#respond</comments>
  1250. <dc:creator><![CDATA[James Branscome]]></dc:creator>
  1251. <pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1252. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  1253. <category><![CDATA[Data]]></category>
  1254. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240096</guid>
  1255.  
  1256. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="682" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1257. <p>Editor&#8217;s Note: The population data in this article is preliminary. The author downloaded the U.S. Census Bureau’s full Vintage 2025 Population Estimates file (CO-EST2025-alldata), identified the 60 counties comprising the ARC Central Appalachian sub-region using the commission’s original 1965 definition, and computed all figures independently. The Census Bureau has not issued its own analysis of [&#8230;]</p>
  1258. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/appalachias-coalfields-the-projections-are-becoming-reality/2026/06/09/">Appalachia’s Coalfields: The Projections Are Becoming Reality</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1259. ]]></description>
  1260. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="682" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP-Lede-art-of-Hazard-Kentucky-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1261. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: The population data in this article is preliminary. The author downloaded the U.S. Census Bureau’s full Vintage 2025 Population Estimates file (<a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-counties-total.html">CO-EST2025-alldata</a>), identified the 60 counties comprising the ARC Central Appalachian sub-region using the commission’s<a href="https://www.arc.gov/map/subregions-in-appalachia/"> original 1965 definition</a>, and computed all figures independently. The Census Bureau has not issued its own analysis of this sub-region. An Excel workbook containing all county-level data for all 60 counties, with separate tabs for each of the four states, is attached for editors and readers who wish to work with the underlying numbers. All figures should be treated as preliminary pending independent verification.</em></p>
  1262.  
  1263.  
  1264.  
  1265. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1266.  
  1267.  
  1268.  
  1269. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Last October, <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/the-alarming-depopulation-of-appalachias-coalfields-a-quarter-century-of-projected-decline/2025/10/22/">I reported</a> on demographic projections from three state universities showing that the 60 coalfield counties of Central Appalachia — 30 in Kentucky, 16 in West Virginia, seven in Virginia, and seven in Tennessee — face population losses of 15-20% by 2050. Demographers at the<a href="https://www.coopercenter.org/demographics">University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service</a>, the<a href="https://kybtn.ca.uky.edu">University of Kentucky</a>, and<a href="https://business.wvu.edu/research-outreach/bureau-of-business-and-economic-research">West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research</a> painted a picture of a regional catastrophe unfolding in slow motion.</p>
  1270.  
  1271.  
  1272.  
  1273. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The U.S. Census Bureau has now released its Vintage 2025 population estimates, covering the five-year period from the April 2020 decennial census through July 1, 2025. The numbers are preliminary — the Census Bureau has not conducted an independent analysis of the Central Appalachian sub-region, and the figures presented here represent the author’s own computation from the raw national file — but the early trajectory is not encouraging.</p>
  1274.  
  1275.  
  1276.  
  1277. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In five years, the 60-county Central Appalachian coalfield region has lost approximately 49,000 people, a decline of roughly 2.9% from the 2020 census baseline. If that annual rate of loss holds, the region would reach a 15% decline by roughly 2040 — a decade ahead of the projections published last fall. For counties like McDowell in West Virginia and Breathitt in Kentucky, the pace is already running ahead of even the most pessimistic forecasts.</p>
  1278.  
  1279.  
  1280.  
  1281. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">There is genuine good news in the data, concentrated almost entirely in Tennessee and a handful of Kentucky service-hub counties. And across Appalachia as a whole, one demographic group is growing rapidly even as the historic population declines — the region’s Hispanic community, now estimated at<a href="https://www.arc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ANewDiversityRaceandEthnicityinAppalachia.pdf"> 5-6%</a> of the total Appalachian population and the fastest-growing demographic in the region. But the headline across three of the four states is that the projections are becoming actuals, and in the deepest coalfield counties the pace of loss is running ahead of schedule.</p>
  1282.  
  1283.  
  1284.  
  1285. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Regional Picture</strong></h3>
  1286.  
  1287.  
  1288.  
  1289. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The 60-county region as defined by the ARC’s original Central Appalachia designation entered 2025 with an estimated combined population of just over 1.8 million, down from its 2020 census baseline. That roughly 49,000-person reduction in five years is nearly as large as the entire population of Harlan County, Kentucky — a county that itself lost more than 2,100 people over the same period.</p>
  1290.  
  1291.  
  1292.  
  1293. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The losses are not evenly distributed, either geographically or by cause. Two forces are driving the decline: continued net domestic outmigration, as younger residents leave for employment elsewhere; and natural decrease, meaning deaths are now outnumbering births in nearly every county in the region. The second force is the one that demographers have flagged as the more consequential long-term threat. When young families leave, as Hamilton Lombard of the Weldon Cooper Center observed in an<a href="https://www.wvtf.org/news/2025-10-28/weldon-cooper-center-projects-population-decline-for-virginias-coalfields-but-theres-hope"> interview with WVTF</a> last fall, future births are exported somewhere else. The compounding effect — fewer children born today means fewer working-age adults tomorrow, which means fewer births the generation after that — is now visible in the Census data.</p>
  1294.  
  1295.  
  1296.  
  1297. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In the 2025 estimate year alone, the 30 Kentucky coalfield counties recorded a combined natural decrease, with deaths exceeding births across the vast majority of the sub-region. Pike County alone saw 427 more deaths than births in that single year. Kanawha County in West Virginia, where Charleston is the county seat, recorded 751 more deaths than births. These are not coal-country statistics from the 1980s. They are from last year.</p>
  1298.  
  1299.  
  1300.  
  1301. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>West Virginia: The Deepest Losses</strong></h3>
  1302.  
  1303.  
  1304.  
  1305. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">West Virginia’s 16 Central Appalachian counties lost approximately 33,800 people between 2020 and 2025, a regional decline of 5.0% — double the rate of Kentucky and steeper than Virginia’s coalfields. The state’s southern coalfields are home to the worst performers in the entire 60-county region.</p>
  1306.  
  1307.  
  1308.  
  1309. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">McDowell County, which I cited in October as the starkest example of the crisis, has fallen further still. Having dropped from 98,887 residents in 1950 to 19,123 at the 2020 census — a loss of more than 80% over seven decades — McDowell has now declined to an estimated 16,878 residents as of July 2025. That is a loss of 2,245 people, or 11.7%, in five years alone. West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research projected McDowell would lose roughly a third of its people by 2040. At the current pace, that threshold arrives well before then.</p>
  1310.  
  1311.  
  1312.  
  1313. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Mingo County has lost 9.0% of its population since 2020. Wyoming and Webster counties have each declined 7.4%. Boone and Logan counties have fallen between 6.7% and 7.2%. Kanawha County, the most populous in the state’s coalfield region at an estimated 172,381 residents in 2025, has declined 4.6% since 2020 and lost more than 1,000 residents in the single year from 2024 to 2025.</p>
  1314.  
  1315.  
  1316.  
  1317. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Across all 16 West Virginia Central Appalachian counties, domestic outmigration and natural decrease are both running persistently negative. Not one of the 16 counties registered population growth over the five-year period.</p>
  1318.  
  1319.  
  1320.  
  1321. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>East Kentucky: The Deep Coal Core Versus the Emerging Exceptions</strong></h3>
  1322.  
  1323.  
  1324.  
  1325. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Kentucky’s 30-county coalfield sub-region declined 2.5% between 2020 and 2025, a loss of about 16,265 people. But that aggregate figure conceals a stark internal divide between the deep coal counties and a small number of counties that are growing as regional service hubs.</p>
  1326.  
  1327.  
  1328.  
  1329. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The deep coal core is tracking closely to the university projections from last fall. Breathitt County, which the University of Kentucky projected would lose 39% of its population by 2050, has already declined 8.5% in five years. Harlan County, projected to lose nearly 45% by 2050, is down 7.8% since 2020, with a current estimated population of 24,725. Leslie County has declined 8.4%. Letcher County is down 7.4%. Perry County and Pike County, the region’s most populous county at an estimated 54,721 residents, have each lost 6.7% of their 2020 populations. Pike County alone shed 3,946 people in five years — the largest absolute loss of any county in the entire 60-county region.</p>
  1330.  
  1331.  
  1332.  
  1333. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In each of these counties, the Vintage 2025 data shows natural decrease running alongside domestic outmigration, the two mechanisms reinforcing each other precisely as the University of Kentucky researchers warned they would.</p>
  1334.  
  1335.  
  1336.  
  1337. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Yet Eastern Kentucky also contains some of the most instructive counter-narratives in the entire region. Pulaski County, home to Somerset, grew 3.6% since 2020, adding 2,350 residents to reach an estimated 67,384. Morgan County grew 5.0%. Menifee County grew 5.2%. McCreary County gained 1.4%. These counties function increasingly as regional healthcare, retail, and service centers for the surrounding population. Their growth, modest as it is, illustrates the point the University of Virginia demographers made last fall: decline is not inevitable. But the economic forces driving growth in Somerset are not replicating themselves in Harlan or Pikeville.</p>
  1338.  
  1339.  
  1340.  
  1341. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Virginia: Buchanan and the Coalfield Counties</strong></h3>
  1342.  
  1343.  
  1344.  
  1345. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Virginia’s seven Central Appalachian coalfield counties have collectively lost 7,208 people since 2020, a decline of 4.0%. Buchanan County — which Cardinal News founding editor Dwayne Yancey has covered closely, and which the Weldon Cooper Center projects will lose 48% of its remaining population by 2050 — has fallen 9.1% since the 2020 census, from 20,343 residents to an estimated 18,492. Buchanan peaked at nearly 38,000 residents in 1980. Dickenson County has declined 6.3%. Tazewell County is down 4.5%, Wise County 3.6%.</p>
  1346.  
  1347.  
  1348.  
  1349. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In his February 2026 analysis of the new state-level data, Yancey reported that the Virginia coalfield counties as a group had seen the largest relative shift in domestic migration of any region in the state, moving from a net loss of more than 2,300 residents to other parts of the country in 2014 to a net gain of 377 by 2024, according to<a href="https://cardinalnews.org/2026/02/25/new-population-estimates-fairfax-county-population-losses-accelerate-so-do-population-gains-downstate/"> Cardinal News</a>. Whether that modest migration reversal can be sustained — or whether it will be overwhelmed by accelerating natural decrease — is the critical open question for the Virginia sub-region. The five-year trend in the Vintage 2025 data suggests natural decrease has become the dominant force regardless of migration flows.</p>
  1350.  
  1351.  
  1352.  
  1353. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Tennessee: The Exception That Illuminates the Rule</strong></h3>
  1354.  
  1355.  
  1356.  
  1357. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The one unambiguously good news story in the Central Appalachian data belongs to Tennessee. All seven of the state’s ARC-designated coal counties gained population between 2020 and 2025. The combined gain was approximately 8,169 people, a 4.2% increase — making Tennessee the only state in the four-state region with net population growth over the period.</p>
  1358.  
  1359.  
  1360.  
  1361. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">As I noted in October, this result is not accidental. Tennessee ceased meaningful coal production in 2021, according to the<a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48696"> U.S. Energy Information Administration</a>, and its former coal counties now benefit from their proximity to growing metropolitan centers: Knoxville, Oak Ridge, and Chattanooga. Hawkins County grew 5.0%. Hancock County grew 6.2%. Johnson County gained 4.3%. Claiborne County added 1,188 residents, a gain of 3.7%.</p>
  1362.  
  1363.  
  1364.  
  1365. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The contrast with McDowell County in West Virginia or Breathitt County in Kentucky is not simply a matter of geography. It reflects decades of difference in economic diversification, metropolitan connectivity, and the availability of alternatives to coal as an economic anchor. The lesson Tennessee offers to the rest of the region is also the hardest one to act on: the time to diversify was before the mines closed, not after.</p>
  1366.  
  1367.  
  1368.  
  1369. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>A Growing Presence: The Hispanic Population</strong></h3>
  1370.  
  1371.  
  1372.  
  1373. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Against this backdrop of population loss, one demographic trend cuts in a different direction. Across Appalachia as a whole — a broader geography than the 60-county coalfield region — the Hispanic community has become the fastest-growing demographic, now estimated at 5-6% of the total regional population, up from a negligible presence as recently as the 1980s. The growth has been most pronounced in Southern Appalachia, driven by employment in poultry processing, construction, agriculture, and light manufacturing.</p>
  1374.  
  1375.  
  1376.  
  1377. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The implications for the coalfields are not yet fully visible in the Census estimates, in part because the international migration numbers for the deep coal counties remain very small. But the broader Appalachian Latino demographic shift represents one of the more significant cultural and economic transformations in the region’s modern history — and one that receives far less attention than it deserves given the pace of change. As one reader noted in response to my October article, understanding what draws Hispanic families to a region that the broader national narrative portrays as dying may offer lessons that matter for anyone trying to reverse the population loss trends the rest of the data describes.</p>
  1378.  
  1379.  
  1380.  
  1381. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What the Numbers Mean</strong></h3>
  1382.  
  1383.  
  1384.  
  1385. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The ARC was established in 1965 with a mandate to reduce Appalachia’s persistent poverty and isolation. More than six decades and billions of federal dollars later, the 60 counties of Central Appalachia are losing people at a rate that, if sustained, will eliminate roughly one in every six residents within a generation. The region that powered America’s industrial rise — that lit its cities and drove its steel mills — is being depopulated at a pace the Census Bureau’s own data now confirms.</p>
  1386.  
  1387.  
  1388.  
  1389. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The projections published last fall were based on demographic modeling by three state universities working from 2020 census data. What the Vintage 2025 estimates show is that the models are not overestimating the trend. In the deepest coal counties, the models may be underestimating it. Five years in, Breathitt and Harlan counties in Kentucky, McDowell County in West Virginia, and Buchanan County in Virginia are all declining at annual rates consistent with — or exceeding — the worst-case scenarios in the projections.</p>
  1390.  
  1391.  
  1392.  
  1393. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">John Whisman, the Appalachian Regional Commission’s first States Co-Chair, once said that the only way to address Appalachian poverty was to “bribe the governors” — to make federal support so compelling that state governments would have no choice but to invest in the region. It was an admission that the region could not solve its problems alone. Six decades later, the investment has not arrived at any scale commensurate with the crisis the data now describes, and the people are leaving anyway.</p>
  1394.  
  1395.  
  1396.  
  1397. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The question the new Census data forces is simple: at what population level does a county cease to be functionally viable? McDowell County, West Virginia, at 16,878 people — down from nearly 100,000 in 1950 — may already be approaching that threshold for some services. If the projections hold, it will not be the last county in the region to face that question.</p>
  1398.  
  1399.  
  1400.  
  1401. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1402.  
  1403.  
  1404.  
  1405. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>James Branscome </em></strong><em>is a journalist and author who has covered Appalachia for five decades. He writes for the Kentucky Lantern, Cardinal News, West Virginia Watch, and the Daily Yonder, and publishes the Appalachian Daily News newsletter. He can be reached through his Substack at </em><a href="https://substack.com/@jbranx"><em>substack.com/@jbranx</em></a><em>.</em></p>
  1406. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/appalachias-coalfields-the-projections-are-becoming-reality/2026/06/09/">Appalachia’s Coalfields: The Projections Are Becoming Reality</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1407. ]]></content:encoded>
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  1413. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">240096</post-id> </item>
  1414. <item>
  1415. <title>Study: Access to Health Care for Rural Residents with Disabilities Severely Lacking in All Researched Areas</title>
  1416. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/study-access-to-health-care-for-rural-residents-with-disabilities-severely-lacking-in-all-researched-areas/2026/06/08/</link>
  1417. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/study-access-to-health-care-for-rural-residents-with-disabilities-severely-lacking-in-all-researched-areas/2026/06/08/#respond</comments>
  1419. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Liz Carey]]></dc:creator>
  1420. <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1421. <category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
  1422. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240101</guid>
  1423.  
  1424. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="746" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C746&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C553&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C944&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C559&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1118&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1491&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C874&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C746&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1456&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C568&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C291&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C514&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C746&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1425. <p>While accessing health care is hard for rural residents, it’s even harder if they have disabilities, new research finds. According to a study by the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center, individuals in rural counties have less access to primary care providers, dental care providers, and mental health care providers than either other rural [&#8230;]</p>
  1426. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/study-access-to-health-care-for-rural-residents-with-disabilities-severely-lacking-in-all-researched-areas/2026/06/08/">Study: Access to Health Care for Rural Residents with Disabilities Severely Lacking in All Researched Areas</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1427. ]]></description>
  1428. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="746" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C746&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C553&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C944&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C559&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1118&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1491&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C874&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C746&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1456&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C568&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C291&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C514&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AP070430018047-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C746&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1429. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">While accessing health care is hard for rural residents, it’s even harder if they have disabilities, new research finds.</p>
  1430.  
  1431.  
  1432.  
  1433. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">According to a <a href="https://rhrc.umn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/County-Level-DIfferences-in-HPSAs_final.pdf">study by the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center</a>, individuals in rural counties have less access to primary care providers, dental care providers, and mental health care providers than either other rural residents or urban residents.</p>
  1434.  
  1435.  
  1436.  
  1437. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“As disability prevalence in a (rural) county goes up, so does the likelihood of the county being in a healthcare workforce shortage area,” Carrie Henning-Smith, lead researcher on the study and co-director of the Rural Health Research Center, said in an interview with the Daily Yonder.</p>
  1438.  
  1439.  
  1440.  
  1441. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That adds another harder twist to healthcare in rural areas, she said, because rural residents are already more likely to have a disability than their urban counterparts.</p>
  1442.  
  1443.  
  1444.  
  1445. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2021, a little more than one in seven rural residents (14.7%) reported having a disability, while just 12.6% of urban residents did.</p>
  1446.  
  1447.  
  1448.  
  1449. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Reasons for that are varied, Henning-Smith said.</p>
  1450.  
  1451.  
  1452.  
  1453. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“There are a lot of reasons, and it&#8217;s hard to pull them all apart, but it has to do with the structural factors that make up health outcomes in the first place,” she said. “You have higher rates of poverty (in rural areas); you have lower educational levels; you have more challenging access to care, especially specialty care, and challenges with just about every other social driver of health, like housing, transportation, and food access. And taken all together, those social drivers of health and those conditions where people live and work and play lead to higher disability risk for rural residents.”</p>
  1454.  
  1455.  
  1456.  
  1457. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Once those rural residents experience disabilities, their likelihood of not being able to find providers that can help them with their healthcare needs increases, the study found. The study looked at counties and whether they were rural or urban.&nbsp;</p>
  1458.  
  1459.  
  1460.  
  1461. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It also looked at whether counties were Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) – a measurement of the availability of medical professionals for a given population and geography, which can be a useful indicator of provider access. The study also categorized the counties by age, and each age category was sorted into quartiles based on the percentage of the population with a disability – quartile one indicating the lowest disability rate and quartile four being the highest.</p>
  1462.  
  1463.  
  1464.  
  1465. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">What the study found was that only 53.3% of urban counties with disabled residents were classified as HPSA’s, while 84.2% of rural counties with disabled individuals were categorized as HPSAs. The same held true for dental care, in which 73.8% of rural counties were dental health care HPSAs, butonly 45.6% of urban counties were.</p>
  1466.  
  1467.  
  1468.  
  1469. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">As disability prevalence at the county level increased, health care professional shortages increased across those three measures, too, the study found. Rural counties with the highest disability prevalence among adults (ages 19 to 64) had the highest rates of HPSAs in primary care (95.5%), dental care (91.0%), and mental health care (96.7%) shortages.</p>
  1470.  
  1471.  
  1472.  
  1473. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The correlation of higher disability rates and lower access to healthcare providers puts rural residents at greater risk, Henning-Smith said.</p>
  1474.  
  1475.  
  1476.  
  1477. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We can&#8217;t say anything about the causal directions here, but what I do know is that if you have a disability that comes with certain additional needs for care, it might come with needs for additional primary care or specialty care. It may come with needs for providers who understand you and understand your condition,” she said.&nbsp;</p>
  1478.  
  1479.  
  1480.  
  1481. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“In situations where there are workforce shortages, all of that is harder to come by… We also know that disability often happens in tandem with chronic conditions, and folks with disabilities are more likely to have many chronic conditions and those that require additional healthcare. All of that means that having a disability and living in a (healthcare) workforce shortage area, it&#8217;s harder to get the care you need, and that might lead to poor health outcomes.”</p>
  1482.  
  1483.  
  1484.  
  1485. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Although there is no causal relationship between access to care and disability, it’s easy to see how one could affect the other, she said.</p>
  1486.  
  1487.  
  1488.  
  1489. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“An example I can think of is if someone has diabetes and if they don&#8217;t receive a diagnosis in a timely manner, and they don&#8217;t have access to the care they need to manage their diabetes, that can lead to eventual disability,” she said. “We can see if someone loses a foot or has an amputation because their diabetes was not adequately managed … (there are) a number of disability conditions that may have been preventable had someone had access to the care they needed sooner.”</p>
  1490.  
  1491.  
  1492.  
  1493. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">And while having access to healthcare one can afford doesn’t ensure a lack of disabilities, the study does give rise to the question about whether living in an area with long-standing workforce shortages may lead to poor disability outcomes, something Henning-Smith said is worthy of further study.</p>
  1494.  
  1495.  
  1496.  
  1497. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Moreover, she said, the study ultimately illustrates how the communities with the greatest need are often the ones least likely to be well-served.</p>
  1498.  
  1499.  
  1500.  
  1501. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I was really struck by the magnitude of these findings,” Henning-Smith said. “The fact that more than 90% of rural counties in the highest quartile disability are health workforce shortage areas for just about every service line we looked at is abysmal and deeply concerning.”</p>
  1502.  
  1503.  
  1504.  
  1505. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">And the health of the country is dependent on the health of residents in rural America, she said.</p>
  1506.  
  1507.  
  1508.  
  1509. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We&#8217;re not going to improve our overall health outcomes as a country unless we invest in those communities with the greatest needs,” she said. “I think this shows that, while we found workforce shortages across all quartiles of disability, the fact that they were greater in those highest disability communities shows that we need targeted investments in the communities that are the least well-resourced.”</p>
  1510.  
  1511.  
  1512.  
  1513. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1514. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/study-access-to-health-care-for-rural-residents-with-disabilities-severely-lacking-in-all-researched-areas/2026/06/08/">Study: Access to Health Care for Rural Residents with Disabilities Severely Lacking in All Researched Areas</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1515. ]]></content:encoded>
  1517. <wfw:commentRss>https://dailyyonder.com/study-access-to-health-care-for-rural-residents-with-disabilities-severely-lacking-in-all-researched-areas/2026/06/08/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1518. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1521. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">240101</post-id> </item>
  1522. <item>
  1523. <title>Under Trump, the Department of Agriculture Has Ditched Conservation and Climate Efforts</title>
  1524. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/under-trump-the-department-of-agriculture-has-ditched-conservation-and-climate-efforts/2026/06/08/</link>
  1525. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/under-trump-the-department-of-agriculture-has-ditched-conservation-and-climate-efforts/2026/06/08/#respond</comments>
  1527. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Georgina Gustin / Inside Climate News and Peter Aldhous / Inside Climate News]]></dc:creator>
  1528. <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1529. <category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
  1530. <category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
  1531. <category><![CDATA[repub]]></category>
  1532. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=239647</guid>
  1533.  
  1534. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1535. <p>This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. Amanda Koehler has spent the past decade working to help young and first-time farmers gain access to land—the single biggest obstacle for people who aspire to grow crops or [&#8230;]</p>
  1536. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/under-trump-the-department-of-agriculture-has-ditched-conservation-and-climate-efforts/2026/06/08/">Under Trump, the Department of Agriculture Has Ditched Conservation and Climate Efforts</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1537. ]]></description>
  1538. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/54585067423_816ddc058e_k.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1539. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08042026/trump-usda-staff-cuts/">Inside Climate News</a>, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter/">here</a>.</em></p>
  1540.  
  1541.  
  1542.  
  1543. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1544.  
  1545.  
  1546.  
  1547. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Amanda Koehler has spent the past decade working to help young and first-time farmers gain access to land—the single biggest obstacle for people who aspire to grow crops or raise animals but can’t afford the soaring cost of acreage.</p>
  1548.  
  1549.  
  1550.  
  1551. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Recently she and other advocates learned the Trump administration in late March quietly axed a little-known but nonetheless critical Biden-era program designed to boost opportunities for these farmers, determining the program had, in essence, failed. In fact, it was just gaining momentum.</p>
  1552.  
  1553.  
  1554.  
  1555. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I wasn’t surprised it happened,” Koehler said. “But the timing was a shock.”</p>
  1556.  
  1557.  
  1558.  
  1559. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The program, called Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access, aimed to help underrepresented farmers, but also had the potential indirect effect of countering the growing consolidation and corporate control in the agriculture industry, which has made it nearly impossible for new farmers to break into the business. These larger, industrial-scale farms are typically responsible for agriculture’s sizable carbon impacts.</p>
  1560.  
  1561.  
  1562.  
  1563. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The cut to the program, which cost a relatively modest $300 million in total, is only the latest in a series of Trump administration moves targeting conservation programs and staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. During the Biden administration, USDA launched a number of climate and conservation initiatives to address agriculture’s role—as both culprit and victim—in the climate crisis.</p>
  1564.  
  1565.  
  1566.  
  1567. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">During the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, many of those were slashed or altered in a way that either disadvantages small-scale farmers in favor of big operators or sidelines conservation efforts.</p>
  1568.  
  1569.  
  1570.  
  1571. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Overall, USDA lost 21 percent of its workforce—compared to a 12 percent cut across the entire federal government, according to an Inside Climate News analysis of data from the Office of Personnel Management covering the first year of the second Trump administration. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the agency’s primary department overseeing climate-related efforts, took one of the biggest blows, losing more than 23 percent of its staff, dropping from nearly 12,000 employees to just over 9,000.</p>
  1572.  
  1573.  
  1574.  
  1575. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“All federal agencies got hit hard, but USDA got hit really, really hard,” said Becky Schewe, a policy analyst for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition who extensively analyzed USDA staff cuts last year. “And NRCS got hit particularly hard. These are the people providing technical guidance and assistance and support for farmers; they’re the ones managing and paying out working lands conservation programs. … All of those staff losses have a direct conservation and climate impact.”</p>
  1576.  
  1577.  
  1578.  
  1579. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The vast majority of these cuts, Schewe noted, were staff who left the agency voluntarily, through the Department of Government Efficiency’s deferred resignation program in which employees agreed to leave federal agencies in April of last year, but got paid through September.&nbsp;</p>
  1580.  
  1581.  
  1582.  
  1583. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“A large part of it has to do with morale,” Schewe noted. “They thought they were going to lose their jobs anyway.”</p>
  1584.  
  1585.  
  1586.  
  1587. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Most of the staff who left the agency served or lived in rural areas and were not based in or near Washington, D.C., even though the administration had said Washington-based employees were its primary target for termination. While the agency’s Washington headquarters lost 12 percent, and offices in suburban Maryland, home to major research and inspection wings of USDA, lost about 40 percent, some ag-heavy states, including Kansas and Illinois, lost as much as 30 percent.</p>
  1588.  
  1589.  
  1590.  
  1591. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1592. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“All of those staff losses have a direct conservation and climate impact.”— Becky Schewe, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition</p>
  1593. </blockquote>
  1594.  
  1595.  
  1596.  
  1597. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“There’s this disconnect between the rhetoric that we’re, quote, moving service closer to farmers and the fact that they are, in fact, laying off or separating or moving staff who serve farmers directly and are already in the field,” Schewe said.</p>
  1598.  
  1599.  
  1600.  
  1601. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Many of the highly trained soil scientists and engineers who consult with farmers on how to implement and assess conservation practices are now gone, and those still serving these areas are often stretched thin over several counties rather than one or two.&nbsp;</p>
  1602.  
  1603.  
  1604.  
  1605. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The NRCS staff “work in extremely close partnership with farmers on a day-to-day basis,” said Rebecca Bartels, executive director of Invest in Our Land, a newly formed group focused on protecting conservation dollars for farmers. “We see a lot of concerns, both on the delivery of the programs and also for farmers’ ability to navigate how the conservation practices that the program facilitates can help them overcome very real day-to-day challenges like extreme weather.”</p>
  1606.  
  1607.  
  1608.  
  1609. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">President Joe Biden’s signature climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, provided about $19.5 billion to farmers for practices deemed to have a beneficial climate impact. Under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed last July, $14 billion that had not yet been spent was instead rolled into USDA’s baseline spending for conservation programs.</p>
  1610.  
  1611.  
  1612.  
  1613. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Ultimately that provided more permanent funding for conservation programs over time. But in the process, the administration lifted rules that direct the funds to be spent specifically on programs with a climate benefit. The new legislation also raised income limits on conservation funding, meaning large farms with greater resources and technical support can qualify for conservation funding that doesn’t have a climate-specific goal.&nbsp;</p>
  1614.  
  1615.  
  1616.  
  1617. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Where there’s real concern is how this is going to play out,” said Richa Patel, a policy specialist with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “With a lack of staff, it’ll just be easier to write contracts for the folks who are well resourced … and don’t need that more technical one-on-one help and support from their local field staff, because there’s just far less of them.”</p>
  1618.  
  1619.  
  1620.  
  1621. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The lack of field staff also means the administration’s own programs appear to be getting shortchanged. In December, USDA announced a new “Regenerative Pilot Program” intended to help farmers deploy more conservation practices, like growing soil-restoring cover crops or implementing grazing management techniques to control erosion. But farmers have reported that their local NRCS offices are unfamiliar with the program or how to help them carry it out.</p>
  1622.  
  1623.  
  1624.  
  1625. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Even among politically conservative farmers, who historically have questioned the causes of climate change, conservation and climate programs have become hugely popular. USDA’s largest conservation program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), pays farmers to achieve certain conservation benefits.</p>
  1626.  
  1627.  
  1628.  
  1629. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“EQIP is wildly oversubscribed and popular,” Bartels said. “How will farmers continue to trust that if they choose to enroll, a contract will be respected and staff will be there to support them?”</p>
  1630.  
  1631.  
  1632.  
  1633. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Koehler, who manages the Land, Capital, and Market Access Network, said she knows of many farmers who had to seek professional help to secure a grant in the past three years, at significant cost to them. “The farms that can access the program are farms that are able to find and pay for their own technical assistance,” she explained. “I know farmers who were unable to get a [<a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/conservation-stewardship-program">Conservation Stewardship Program</a>] or EQIP contract without hiring a grant writer. That’s not how these programs should work.”</p>
  1634.  
  1635.  
  1636.  
  1637. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">USDA’s staff cuts have accompanied the <a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/07/24/secretary-rollins-announces-usda-reorganization-restoring-departments-core-mission-supporting">agency’s announcements</a> of major reorganizations. At the end of March, the agency <a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2026/03/31/usda-prioritizing-common-sense-forest-management-moves-forest-service-headquarters-salt-lake-city">announced</a> it would move the U.S. Forest Service <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02042026/forest-service-reorganization-ahead-of-wildfire-season/">headquarters from D.C</a>. to Utah and “begin a sweeping restructuring of the agency to move leadership closer to the forests and communities it serves.”</p>
  1638.  
  1639.  
  1640.  
  1641. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">USDA hasn’t yet disclosed the fate of the departments across the rest of the agency.</p>
  1642.  
  1643.  
  1644.  
  1645. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We know very little in terms of formally confirmed and shared information there,” Schewe said. “I would say the department is very tight-lipped. They’re not even providing information to staff, much less to other stakeholders.”</p>
  1646.  
  1647.  
  1648.  
  1649. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Schewe referenced public announcements from the agency about office lease terminations, suggesting it is indeed planning for staff relocations. “So it’s definitely moving forward,” she added. “But the status of what it is and what their plans are is very unclear.”</p>
  1650.  
  1651.  
  1652.  
  1653. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">When asked for details, a USDA spokesperson responded by email: “Secretary [Brooke] Rollins understands the array of mission critical positions and programs at the Department, and she will ensure that those areas, including NRCS, have the resources and personnel they need to continue serving the American people,” they wrote. “Some aspects of the reorganization will be implemented over the coming months while other aspects will take more time to implement. As the reorganization progresses, employees and other relevant parties will be updated accordingly.”</p>
  1654.  
  1655.  
  1656.  
  1657. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Beyond staff shuffling and cuts, USDA has slashed individual conservation and diversity-focused grants.</p>
  1658.  
  1659.  
  1660.  
  1661. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">FarmStand, a legal advocacy group, <a href="https://farmstand.org/case/deep-dive-trumps-ten-search-terms-to-cancel-american-farmers/">has sued</a> the administration, demanding it provide a full record of how it chose the grants to cut. So far the USDA has not provided it, but what it has produced shows that the agency targeted any awarded grant that had an array of terms, including “equity,” “environmental justice,” “climate change” or “biodiversity.”</p>
  1662.  
  1663.  
  1664.  
  1665. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“They just typed words into a database, saw what hit and then listed those grants for termination,” said David Muraskin, managing director for litigation at FarmStand. “It was like: ‘Let’s find the people who you can point to as getting grants like this and terminate them regardless of reason.’”</p>
  1666.  
  1667.  
  1668.  
  1669. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  1670. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“They withheld approvals that grantees were required to get to do the work, and so they essentially bottlenecked the program and then blamed awardees for not making progress.”— Amanda Koehler, Land, Capital, and Market Access Network</p>
  1671. </blockquote>
  1672.  
  1673.  
  1674.  
  1675. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The recent termination of 49 out of the 50 Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access projects, announced in late March, effectively killed the entire program and is just a continuation of that process, critics say.</p>
  1676.  
  1677.  
  1678.  
  1679. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“It’s clear we’re seeing the ripple effects of this blunderbuss approach,” Muraskin said, noting that the termination letters grantees received accused the grant program of fraud, abuse and waste, but didn’t cite specific allegations.</p>
  1680.  
  1681.  
  1682.  
  1683. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In fact, Koehler said, USDA froze the funding for the grants for months. “They withheld approvals that grantees were required to get to do the work, and so they essentially bottlenecked the program and then blamed awardees for not making progress,” she said.</p>
  1684.  
  1685.  
  1686.  
  1687. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The grants and low-interest loans for farmland, farm infrastructure and equipment were intended to provide practical support. “These are people who are trying to feed their communities and care for the land,” Koehler added. “And we all know that young and underserved producers are much more likely to participate in regenerative and climate-smart practices.”</p>
  1688.  
  1689.  
  1690.  
  1691. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">A USDA spokesperson said that the agency terminated the grants because of an “egregious misuse of taxpayer dollars to the tune of $300 million,” saying that inappropriate spending under the program included $20,000 for a barbeque smoker, $110,000 for a camper and $20,000 for pens.&nbsp;</p>
  1692.  
  1693.  
  1694.  
  1695. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Like many critics of the current USDA, Koehler pointed to the rare progress the agency had finally made toward addressing climate change—long overdue, many advocates say—under the Biden administration.</p>
  1696.  
  1697.  
  1698.  
  1699. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Under the last administration, climate became a clear priority for the first time,” Koehler said. “And it’s been very concerning to see the loss of these programs and the loss of this focus.”</p>
  1700.  
  1701.  
  1702.  
  1703. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1704. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/under-trump-the-department-of-agriculture-has-ditched-conservation-and-climate-efforts/2026/06/08/">Under Trump, the Department of Agriculture Has Ditched Conservation and Climate Efforts</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1705. ]]></content:encoded>
  1707. <wfw:commentRss>https://dailyyonder.com/under-trump-the-department-of-agriculture-has-ditched-conservation-and-climate-efforts/2026/06/08/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1708. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1711. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">239647</post-id> </item>
  1712. <item>
  1713. <title>Trump’s Medicaid Work Rules Force States To Scrap Plans and Rework Systems</title>
  1714. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/trumps-medicaid-work-rules-force-states-to-scrap-plans-and-rework-systems/2026/06/08/</link>
  1715. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/trumps-medicaid-work-rules-force-states-to-scrap-plans-and-rework-systems/2026/06/08/#respond</comments>
  1717. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Rachana Pradhan / KFF Health News and Samantha Liss / KFF Health News]]></dc:creator>
  1718. <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:58:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1719. <category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
  1720. <category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
  1721. <category><![CDATA[repub]]></category>
  1722. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240680</guid>
  1723.  
  1724. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1725. <p>This story was originally published by KFF Health News. The Trump administration’s rollout of a federal mandate that millions of Americans on Medicaid must work or risk losing health benefits will force states to scrap months of preparation, according to advocates for Medicaid enrollees and consultants advising states. And they say an overhaul — less [&#8230;]</p>
  1726. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/trumps-medicaid-work-rules-force-states-to-scrap-plans-and-rework-systems/2026/06/08/">Trump’s Medicaid Work Rules Force States To Scrap Plans and Rework Systems</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1727. ]]></description>
  1728. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26143069905502-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1729. <p class="has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph"><em>This story was originally published by </em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/medicaid/trump-law-medicaid-work-rules-states-overhaul-eligibility-systems/"><em>KFF Health</em> <em>News</em></a>.</p>
  1730.  
  1731.  
  1732.  
  1733. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Trump administration’s rollout of a federal mandate that millions of Americans on Medicaid must work or risk losing health benefits will force states to scrap months of preparation, according to advocates for Medicaid enrollees and consultants advising states.</p>
  1734.  
  1735.  
  1736.  
  1737. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">And they say an overhaul — less than seven months before states must start enforcing the requirement — will be costly.</p>
  1738.  
  1739.  
  1740.  
  1741. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-11094.pdf">Regulations issued June 1</a>&nbsp;by the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services dictate many granular details about how the new work requirements will play out. They cover how states should check whether Medicaid enrollees are following the rules, and how people can claim an exemption so that their health benefits don’t hinge on work, community service, or going to school.</p>
  1742.  
  1743.  
  1744.  
  1745. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Next year, President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act could require roughly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2025-06/Wyden-Pallone-Neal_Letter_6-4-25.pdf">18.5 million adults</a>&nbsp;across 42 states and the District of Columbia who receive Medicaid benefits to prove they’re working or participating in a similar activity to keep their health coverage — unless they qualify for an exemption.</p>
  1746.  
  1747.  
  1748.  
  1749. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Much of the verification will run through state computer systems that assess whether low-income people qualify for Medicaid and other safety net programs — technology often built and run by private companies under contracts routinely worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Many of those systems have a&nbsp;<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/insurance/state-medicaid-work-requirements-eligibility-systems-deloitte-accenture-optum/">history of errors</a>&nbsp;that can cut off benefits to eligible people.</p>
  1750.  
  1751.  
  1752.  
  1753. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">For months, states have been communicating with federal regulators and rushing to build systems to comply with the looming mandates, said Kinda Serafi, a partner at the Manatt Health consulting and legal firm. The rules released this week represent a “significant policy pivot” from what states were expecting, Serafi said.</p>
  1754.  
  1755.  
  1756.  
  1757. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The administration has actually taken what we know to be a tough situation and has just made it even worse,” Serafi said. States had already committed to paying contractors tens of millions to adjust their systems.</p>
  1758.  
  1759.  
  1760.  
  1761. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">After Trump signed his signature tax-and-spending bill into law last July, one of the most significant remaining questions was how much discretion the federal government would give states to define exemptions for people too sick to work. The “medical frailty” exemption allows a person to claim they have a health condition that prevents them from working at least 80 hours a month, as the law requires.</p>
  1762.  
  1763.  
  1764.  
  1765. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">To qualify, a person generally must fit into at least one of five categories: They must be blind or disabled; have a substance use disorder; have a disabling mental disorder; have a physical, intellectual, or developmental disability that significantly impairs their daily life; or have a serious medical condition. States are not allowed to add categories.</p>
  1766.  
  1767.  
  1768.  
  1769. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Under the new regulations, CMS said having a medical condition alone isn’t sufficient to exempt someone from the work requirements. States must assess “the severity of an individual’s condition” to determine whether they can stay on Medicaid without working — a standard that makes it more difficult for enrollees to meet the criteria.</p>
  1770.  
  1771.  
  1772.  
  1773. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">CMS officials did not list specific conditions that qualify for exemptions, but the agency did say homelessness can’t be a reason to claim that exemption because it is not a medical condition.</p>
  1774.  
  1775.  
  1776.  
  1777. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">To implement the law, states “will have to undo work that they did,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://spia.princeton.edu/faculty/dm24">Daniel Meuse</a>, deputy director of Princeton University’s State Health and Value Strategies program, which works with state governments on various health coverage issues.</p>
  1778.  
  1779.  
  1780.  
  1781. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Trump administration previously acknowledged that the work to upgrade state Medicaid eligibility systems to comply with the law is coming at a cost. In January, top CMS officials said government contractors, including Deloitte, Accenture, and Optum,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/medicaid-technology-companies-pledge-600m-savings-support-community-engagement-related-state">have promised to offer discounts</a>&nbsp;and reduced rates through 2028 to help states adjust their systems.</p>
  1782.  
  1783.  
  1784.  
  1785. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The discounts “may be helpful” in some states, but they’re “not going to be helpful across the board” due to variations in state contracts, said&nbsp;<a href="https://spia.princeton.edu/faculty/heatherh">Heather Howard</a>, director of the State Health and Value Strategies program.</p>
  1786.  
  1787.  
  1788.  
  1789. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Anytime you have to go back and say, ‘Oops, we need to reprogram this one thing,’ there’s a cost,” Howard said.</p>
  1790.  
  1791.  
  1792.  
  1793. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">States were prepared to create lists of conditions and diseases to qualify people for work requirement exemptions, according to health care experts advising them. Mining data to verify someone’s illness was already a tall order for states because the computer systems that determine whether someone is eligible for Medicaid often do not communicate with the systems that track medical claims.</p>
  1794.  
  1795.  
  1796.  
  1797. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">America’s health care payment systems rely on a set of standardized codes that correspond to specific diagnoses.</p>
  1798.  
  1799.  
  1800.  
  1801. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But there’s no “code that designates that someone is too sick to work — that’s a subjective assessment,” said Rachel Klein, deputy executive director of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theaidsinstitute.org/">The Aids Institute</a>, a nonpartisan advocacy group for people with HIV. “This is a recipe for disaster.”</p>
  1802.  
  1803.  
  1804.  
  1805. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The new federal standards pose immediate issues for Nebraska, which launched its Medicaid work requirement on May 1, eight months before the federally mandated deadline. Nebraska handles decisions on medical frailty differently than the Trump administration does.</p>
  1806.  
  1807.  
  1808.  
  1809. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Nebraska officials had already released a nearly&nbsp;<a href="https://dhhs.ne.gov/Documents/Nebraska%20Medicaid%20Work%20Requirements%20-%20Medically%20Frail%20and%20SUD%20Conditions.pdf">300-page list</a>&nbsp;of medical conditions that qualify as exemptions, such as types of cancer, dementia, autism, epilepsy, HIV, and Parkinson’s disease. The state, which relies on government workers to check Medicaid eligibility, doesn’t require a person to prove how sick they are.</p>
  1810.  
  1811.  
  1812.  
  1813. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But under Trump’s rules, people will have to show their qualifying illness is impeding their ability to work.</p>
  1814.  
  1815.  
  1816.  
  1817. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now, Nebraska is “going to have to go back and figure out how to assess whether all of these people are too sick to meet the requirement,” Klein said.</p>
  1818.  
  1819.  
  1820.  
  1821. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Medicaid enrollees are slated to start losing coverage this summer under Nebraska’s early rollout.</p>
  1822.  
  1823.  
  1824.  
  1825. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Sarah Maresh, a program director with&nbsp;<a href="https://neappleseed.org/">Nebraska Appleseed</a>, an advocacy organization for people with low incomes, said the state should refrain from terminating people’s coverage until next year because of the changes it will need to make. State residents are already confused and scared, she said, and the new rule “makes matters much worse.”</p>
  1826.  
  1827.  
  1828.  
  1829. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In response to several questions, Jeff Powell, a spokesperson for Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services, said the state is reviewing the new federal regulation to determine potential impacts.</p>
  1830.  
  1831.  
  1832.  
  1833. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The new federal standards will limit people’s ability to attest that they are medically frail starting in 2028 and will require documentation as proof, another change states weren’t expecting, Meuse said.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/medically-frail-exemptions-for-medicaid-work-requirements-key-issues-to-watch-for-in-upcoming-cms-guidance/">More than two dozen states</a>&nbsp;had planned to allow applicants and enrollees to declare conditions themselves to get exemptions, according to KFF.</p>
  1834.  
  1835.  
  1836.  
  1837. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Striking the right balance of flexibility was an important part of deliberations when crafting these rules, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said on a June 1 call with reporters. “The mantra we kept coming back to was that we’re forgiving, but we’re not foolish,” he said.</p>
  1838.  
  1839.  
  1840.  
  1841. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Trump officials wrote in the regulation that Medicaid work requirements have “the potential to empower Medicaid beneficiaries” by allowing them to “escape isolation and dependency, build confidence, achieve self-sufficiency and prosperity, and improve health.”</p>
  1842.  
  1843.  
  1844.  
  1845. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Stephanie Burdick, a leader of the Protect Medicaid Utah coalition, disputed the premise.</p>
  1846.  
  1847.  
  1848.  
  1849. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“If they want to improve work opportunities or connection and decrease isolation and loneliness, they would be starting job programs and volunteer service programs,” Burdick said. “They wouldn’t just be forcing more administrative burden onto people and then saying that it’s good for them.”</p>
  1850.  
  1851.  
  1852.  
  1853. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">An estimated&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2025-08/61367-Uninsured-Data.xlsx">5.3 million enrollees</a>&nbsp;will become uninsured by 2034 due to Medicaid work requirements, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.</p>
  1854.  
  1855.  
  1856.  
  1857. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But with the new regulations, Howard said, there’s a risk of “that number being even higher.”</p>
  1858.  
  1859.  
  1860.  
  1861. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1862.  
  1863.  
  1864.  
  1865. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a>&nbsp;is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.</em></p>
  1866. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/trumps-medicaid-work-rules-force-states-to-scrap-plans-and-rework-systems/2026/06/08/">Trump’s Medicaid Work Rules Force States To Scrap Plans and Rework Systems</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1867. ]]></content:encoded>
  1869. <wfw:commentRss>https://dailyyonder.com/trumps-medicaid-work-rules-force-states-to-scrap-plans-and-rework-systems/2026/06/08/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1870. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1873. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">240680</post-id> </item>
  1874. <item>
  1875. <title>Q&#038;A: Author Joe Bond</title>
  1876. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-author-joe-bond/2026/06/05/</link>
  1877. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-author-joe-bond/2026/06/05/#respond</comments>
  1879. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Olivia Weeks]]></dc:creator>
  1880. <pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1881. <category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
  1882. <category><![CDATA[Path Finders]]></category>
  1883. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240637</guid>
  1884.  
  1885. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="843" height="631" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?fit=843%2C631&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?w=843&amp;ssl=1 843w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=760%2C569&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=768%2C575&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=400%2C299&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=780%2C584&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=706%2C528&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?fit=843%2C631&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1886. <p>Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&#38;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week. [&#8230;]</p>
  1887. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-author-joe-bond/2026/06/05/">Q&amp;A: Author Joe Bond</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1888. ]]></description>
  1889. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="843" height="631" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?fit=843%2C631&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?w=843&amp;ssl=1 843w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=760%2C569&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=768%2C575&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=400%2C299&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=780%2C584&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?resize=706%2C528&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/photo-1-1.jpeg?fit=843%2C631&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1890. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/path-finders/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Path Finders</a>, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&amp;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-appalachian-potter-josh-copus-has-mud-in-the-blood/2025/06/20/#signup">join the mailing list at the bottom of this article</a> and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.</em></p>
  1891.  
  1892.  
  1893.  
  1894. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Joe Bond is a writer from eastern Kentucky, now living in New Orleans. His debut novel <a href="https://www.hubcity.org/books/fiction/hope-house"><em>Hope House</em></a><em> </em>released from Hub City Press on May 26th. The book follows a group of adolescent boys in a state-run home for juvenile delinquents in 1980s Kentucky, and a scrappy young counselor trying to teach them all he knows. Bond’s father ran homes like these all throughout his childhood, and the boys his father tried to help were a big part of his life. He’s <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2026/04/29/all-my-dads-sons/">written about those real life experiences</a> for <em>The Paris Review.</em></p>
  1895.  
  1896.  
  1897.  
  1898. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Enjoy our conversation about group-home and small-town relations, changes in the juvenile justice system, and Bond’s father’s reactions to the book, below. </p>
  1899.  
  1900.  
  1901.  
  1902. <p class="has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph"><em>This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.</em></p>
  1903.  
  1904.  
  1905.  
  1906. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>The Daily Yonder: Can we start with a little bit of biography? Can you tell me about yourself, where you&#8217;re from, what you do?&nbsp;</strong></p>
  1907.  
  1908.  
  1909.  
  1910. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Joe Bond: </strong>I grew up in a small town in eastern Kentucky called Cannonsburg, right in the corner where Ohio and West Virginia and Kentucky all come together. Most of my friends’ dads worked at a steel mill, or at a coke plant, a refinery. Those were the typical jobs. But my dad ran a boys&#8217; home, so he was a little bit different. [I] grew up around the home and the teenagers there. That part of Eastern Kentucky was pretty homogenous. It was lower-to-middle class and almost everyone was white. My dad’s boys came from around Cincinnati and Louisville and Lexington, but also from the mountains. We had a pretty diverse group of teenagers who had been committed through the state and there were some pretty interesting kids. They came from broken homes. They’d been in trouble, sold drugs, stole cars. I grew up with one foot in a “normal” world (for Eastern Kentucky), and simultaneously around my dad&#8217;s boys, which was a different experience.</p>
  1911.  
  1912.  
  1913.  
  1914. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: It&#8217;s interesting having read the book to know that that&#8217;s the perspective you have on this whole world. How much, as a kid, did you feel like one of the members of the </strong><strong><em>Hope House</em></strong><strong> equivalent that existed in real life?</strong>&nbsp;</p>
  1915.  
  1916.  
  1917.  
  1918. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JB: </strong>My dad had worked in homes since before I was born, so there was never a point where it wasn&#8217;t part of my life. I remember being five or six, going to work with him at a group home. He would go to counseling with the boys and I would play in his office.</p>
  1919.  
  1920.  
  1921. <div class="wp-block-image">
  1922. <figure class="alignright size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="1205" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?resize=780%2C1205&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240639" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?resize=839%2C1296&amp;ssl=1 839w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?resize=492%2C760&amp;ssl=1 492w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?resize=768%2C1187&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?resize=994%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 994w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?resize=1325%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1325w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?resize=1200%2C1855&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?resize=663%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 663w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?resize=780%2C1205&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?resize=400%2C618&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?resize=706%2C1091&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?w=1650&amp;ssl=1 1650w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB.jpg?w=1560&amp;ssl=1 1560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/HOPE-HOUSE-HI-RES-WEB-839x1296.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Joe Bond&#8217;s debut novel <a href="https://ruralstrategies.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5948dd7450246f5ab572f8478&amp;id=46a40f7f05&amp;e=afb06b5ac9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Hope House</em></a><em> </em>released from Hub City Press on May 26th. The book follows a group of adolescent boys in a state-run home for juvenile delinquents in 1980s Kentucky.</figcaption></figure>
  1923. </div>
  1924.  
  1925.  
  1926. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I remember having some toy cars and I was just sitting there playing and the door got kicked open and a kid came in who had lost control of himself. He was screaming and the childcare workers were trying to calm him down. I remember scooting my cars back because he was on the floor fighting. I just kept playing. It never entered my mind that this was weird or extreme. It was just life – these things happened. We took our family vacations with the boys to the beach one time. My sister, my mom and I went too. I just jumped in the van. My dad took his boys everywhere. A lot of the big camps and juvenile detention centers back then and even now, it&#8217;s all incarceration. You lock the kids up and keep them there. But my dad had a totally different point of view. His idea was to take the kids back out in the world. Some of the boys had never been out of Louisville. They’d never seen the ocean. He would take them to the movies. He would take them to baseball games, take them hiking and fishing and camping, let them see the world. I tagged along and listened to their stories. They’d talk about where they were from and what had gone wrong in their lives, who they had back home. I got to see the world through their eyes.</p>
  1927.  
  1928.  
  1929.  
  1930. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: One thing that I wanted to hear you talk about a little bit more is, you’re telling a very small piece of the history of bureaucratization in juvenile detention and foster care systems, and of the death of this more informal, creative, almost haphazard kind of group home. I think there are several allusions to this shift throughout the book, where the boys say things like, “Places like this don&#8217;t really exist anymore.” Can you expand a little on that history as far as you know it?</strong></p>
  1931.  
  1932.  
  1933.  
  1934. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JB: </strong>There were a lot of bad places where kids were abused or even killed.&nbsp; One reaction to that was more oversight and intervention, to put in protections for the kids, which had to be done. But over time, some of the changes and the bureaucracy that followed and the distrust made it harder to really reach a kid. You can make it safer for kids in care, but you can also make it to where they’re never allowed to leave the facility. You can do harm in different ways.</p>
  1935.  
  1936.  
  1937.  
  1938. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">One of our counselors had a swimming pool at his house and wanted to take his boys swimming. He was told, “No, you can&#8217;t take them to your house. No way.”&nbsp; If the end goal is for these kids to be back out in the world, you have to let them out some. If you isolate them from the world that they&#8217;re going back into, you&#8217;re really doing them a disservice. At one home, licensing wouldn’t let our kids have jobs. They weren’t allowed to work at the local McDonald’s. To me, that is really short-sighted. I mean, the boys might make mistakes when they go out in the world. They might screw things up, but eventually life outside is going to resume.</p>
  1939.  
  1940.  
  1941.  
  1942. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: I think the way that you handled place in the book was fascinating because I think you really give a sense of that mission on the part of Hope House, for the boys to be out in the world, as you say. And also I thought that you really maintained the sort of distance that these kids in the novel feel from the town that they live in. Can you talk about how you were thinking about their relationship to this town that you depict?&nbsp;</strong></p>
  1943.  
  1944.  
  1945.  
  1946. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JB: </strong>They&#8217;re outsiders. That was something I observed in real life.</p>
  1947.  
  1948.  
  1949.  
  1950. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Most of our kids went to an alternative school. But a few did get to go to public school, and I went to school with them. A lot of our boys played sports, which was pretty controversial in the community. Some people understood the big picture, that these were kids who&#8217;ve come from super difficult environments and they didn’t have families and this was their only chance. They supported our boys being in public school with their own children. Others did not support it.&nbsp;</p>
  1951.  
  1952.  
  1953.  
  1954. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It was real life. Our boys had been through a lot, and whatever changes they’d made for the better, they were still pretty prone to making mistakes. We had kids get in fights. They stole cars. People in the community did not want their cars to be stolen. That’s the risk. You work with kids and let them back out in the world, and sometimes they make mistakes. If you&#8217;re from Louisville, and you’ve been sent off for selling drugs and that&#8217;s the only world you&#8217;ve known, then all of a sudden you&#8217;re in a public high school in Eastern Kentucky in the year 1990, it can be pretty tough, even if you&#8217;re a great basketball player. You&#8217;re going to be surrounded by kids that have lived different lives than you. Some of the people in the community were great. They had good hearts. Other people did not. We had incidents where our boys got jumped. Four or five of our kids who wanted to go to public school and live a normal life, just vastly outnumbered. I remember my dad talking to the high school principal, who refused to punish anyone for beating up our kids. He told my dad that sometimes you just have to take a beating.</p>
  1955.  
  1956.  
  1957.  
  1958. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: Is your dad still around? Has he read the book?</strong>&nbsp;</p>
  1959.  
  1960.  
  1961.  
  1962. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JB: </strong>Yes. I sent him an early chapter and he didn’t respond. I called my mom and she said, “He’s back in the bedroom, crying.” He was a great reader. I would send him a chapter at a time and he would call me and tell me who my characters really were.</p>
  1963.  
  1964.  
  1965.  
  1966. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: What was his best edit?</strong>&nbsp;</p>
  1967.  
  1968.  
  1969.  
  1970. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JB: </strong>He was great with Karvel McLemore, who is the most sophisticated kid in the book. Karvel is this really street smart kid who understands how trapped he is in life. The world he walks into back home, there&#8217;s almost no real way for him to legally survive it. He can be a very successful drug dealer or a very unsuccessful cook at the McDonald&#8217;s He&#8217;s smart enough to know his situation. In the book, he battles with his counselor, Mr. Watts, about that. My dad&#8217;s insight was that it was all happening too quickly on the page, that in real life, you could not turn a kid in a couple of months. I had to go back and revise that timeline. I knew kids like that too. Their trust issues were earned. They had been through other places and when they walk in the door, nothing you say is going to make them believe that you&#8217;re different from the people they&#8217;ve already met and the people they&#8217;ve already had to deal with. It just takes time and you’ve got to build a relationship with the kid. Mr. Watts is based on my dad. I thought I&#8217;d made that character too young, but Dad reminded me that he was even younger when he ran his first group home.&nbsp;</p>
  1971.  
  1972.  
  1973.  
  1974. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: I&#8217;ve asked you a lot about the real life stuff that helped you write this book. I want to know a little bit now about the more writerly side. Is this a novel you&#8217;ve been working on forever? How did it come about?&nbsp;</strong></p>
  1975.  
  1976.  
  1977. <div class="wp-block-image">
  1978. <figure class="alignright size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="1040" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond.jpeg?resize=780%2C1040&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240640" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=972%2C1296&amp;ssl=1 972w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=570%2C760&amp;ssl=1 570w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=1152%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=900%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 900w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=600%2C800&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=450%2C600&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=300%2C400&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=150%2C200&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1600&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=2000%2C2667&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=780%2C1040&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=400%2C533&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?resize=706%2C941&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-scaled.jpeg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/joe-bond-972x1296.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Joe Bond is a writer from eastern Kentucky, now living in New Orleans. (Photo courtesy of Joe Bond)</figcaption></figure>
  1979. </div>
  1980.  
  1981.  
  1982. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JB: </strong>I spent years writing about the wrong stuff. Never even thought about writing about the boys I knew and grew up around. I don&#8217;t know for sure why I started, but the context was that I became a father. I had a son, and I remember him being about two years old and I had no time to write. I would take him to playgrounds all over Atlanta, where I was living, and the only thing I had time to write was poems. I&#8217;d written a poem about a kid who had eaten a lightbulb, which really happened. I just remember writing lines here and there, when I had time. But the kids were pretty complicated, and to write about them in a human way, I needed more context.&nbsp;</p>
  1983.  
  1984.  
  1985.  
  1986. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I took one poem and turned it into a story. That one was about Damico. It won an award, and by then I had six or seven kids I was writing about and I could see them coming together as a group.That was around 2018 or 2019. At that point I realized, “Okay, I think I have enough material for a novel.” I drafted it over a few years and wrote way too much. I ended up cutting 50,000 words. But over time and over several years, the group came together and I figured out how the boys cared about each other. The timeline was tricky because in real life, kids come and go. That happens in the book some, but I needed a lot of material with them together. The timeline was the trickiest thing to figure out.</p>
  1987.  
  1988.  
  1989.  
  1990. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: Did you have a day job? Do you now?</strong></p>
  1991.  
  1992.  
  1993.  
  1994. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JB: </strong>I&#8217;ve done all kinds of stuff. For a while, in high school and in college, I worked in homes. I worked night shift. I worked days, directly with the kids. I coached the softball team. I took the boys on home visits and saw what they’d come from. I went back to get them. I worked in journalism for a long time, writing and editing. I did landscaping. I was a security guard. I worked at a psychiatric hospital. I was a librarian when I lived in New York City. I worked at a law firm in Times Square and did research. That was a good job because I could read books in my downtime. That&#8217;s when I was figuring out that I wanted to be a writer. I finished this novel, and now I&#8217;m trying to write another one while raising two children.&nbsp;</p>
  1995.  
  1996.  
  1997.  
  1998. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: That&#8217;s plenty. What&#8217;s the other book about?</strong> </p>
  1999.  
  2000.  
  2001.  
  2002. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JB: </strong>Friendship. If you took two kids who could have been in <em>Hope House</em> and put them in their twenties and thirties without actually growing them up, those are my characters. Two friends who need each other.</p>
  2003.  
  2004.  
  2005.  
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  2014. </div>
  2015.  
  2016.  
  2017.  
  2018. <div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow" style="flex-basis:66.66%">
  2019. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This interview first appeared in <strong>Path Finders</strong>, a weekly email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each Monday, Path Finders features a Q&amp;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Join the mailing list today, to have these illuminating conversations delivered straight to your inbox. </p>
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  2053.  
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  2055.  
  2056. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  2057. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-author-joe-bond/2026/06/05/">Q&amp;A: Author Joe Bond</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  2058. ]]></content:encoded>
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  2064. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">240637</post-id> </item>
  2065. <item>
  2066. <title>Yonder Radio: Pride Month, Birthright Citizenship, and Rural Metal Music</title>
  2067. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-6-4-2026/2026/06/05/</link>
  2068. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-6-4-2026/2026/06/05/#respond</comments>
  2070. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Staff]]></dc:creator>
  2071. <pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  2072. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  2073. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240603</guid>
  2074.  
  2075. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2076. <p>Tune in for conversations about Pride Month, birthright citizenship affecting Native Americans, and a Midwest town that hosts an annual owl festival. This week's musician is metal artist Nico Albert Williams. </p>
  2077. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-6-4-2026/2026/06/05/">Yonder Radio: Pride Month, Birthright Citizenship, and Rural Metal Music</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  2078. ]]></description>
  2079. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2080. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  2081. <iframe loading="lazy" title="Yonder Radio 6/4/26 Bilboard" width="780" height="439" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-7jMQ3E-Pjg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
  2082. </div></figure>
  2083.  
  2084.  
  2085.  
  2086. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Every week, Yonder Radio brings rural conversations with national reach to listeners around the country.&nbsp;</p>
  2087.  
  2088.  
  2089.  
  2090. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This week, we start off with a conversation with reporter Kaitlyn McConnell about<a href="https://dailyyonder.com/ozarks-notebook-after-a-tornado-des-arc-is-down-but-not-out/2026/04/29/"> a small town in Missouri</a> that is recovering after a tornado hit last year. The town&#8217;s museum is working hard to keep its history alive despite the destruction. Then we head to the Midwest with Arts Midwest reporter Frankie Felegy to hear about a town that hosts a festival to celebrate the birthday of a local owl.</p>
  2091.  
  2092.  
  2093.  
  2094. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">We’ll also take a trip around the world with travel writer Rolf Potts, interviewed by Susannah Broun<strong>,</strong> who gives insight on how to represent rural places in writing and storytelling.</p>
  2095.  
  2096.  
  2097.  
  2098. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">June is Pride Month and to celebrate, we have a conversation with Daily Yonder data reporter Sarah Melotte and producer Ilana Newman<strong> </strong>about the importance of representation in data and how much data exists about rural queer people (spoiler alert, not much). After that, we&#8217;ll hear a story from Wisconsin contributor Donna Kallner about postmarks and the U.S. Postal Service.</p>
  2099.  
  2100.  
  2101.  
  2102. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">From our partners at ICT, we bring you an interview by reporter Pauly Denetclaw about the Supreme Court&#8217;s upcoming ruling on birthright citizenship and how it could affect Native American Tribes.</p>
  2103.  
  2104.  
  2105.  
  2106. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Our featured artist this week is Nico Albert Williams, an Indigenous musician who is part of the metal band Medicine Horse. Tune in this week to hear all this and more on <a href="https://www.yonderradio.com/">Yonder Radio</a>!</p>
  2107.  
  2108.  
  2109.  
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  2111. <iframe title="Spotify Embed: Yonder Radio 6/4/26 (Podcast version, no breaks)" style="border-radius: 12px" width="100%" height="152" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/1ikeByTzLdsmTxaLX83agq?si=d68760fcd59b446b&amp;utm_source=oembed"></iframe>
  2112. </div></figure>
  2113.  
  2114.  
  2115.  
  2116. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Yonder Radio is available across all digital platforms, and on air with partner radio stations around the country. If you&#8217;re a station interested in broadcasting Yonder Radio, sign up below or get in contact with the team at <a href="mailto:info@yonderradio.com">joel@ruralstrategies.org</a>.</p>
  2117.  
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  2125. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Join our Network</h2>
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  2157.  
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  2159. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>If you want to broadcast or publish Yonder Radio, sign up here to be the first to know when the show goes live. If you have questions, you can also reach our team at <a href="mailto:info@yonderradio.com">info@yonderradio.com</a>. </strong></p>
  2160. </div></div>
  2161.  
  2162.  
  2163.  
  2164. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">More Information About Yonder Radio</h2>
  2165.  
  2166.  
  2167.  
  2168. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>What?</strong></p>
  2169.  
  2170.  
  2171.  
  2172. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio</strong>&nbsp;is a new, free, hour-long show that is fresh every week and designed to help fill programming gaps. We’ll feature nuanced stories that represent the 60 million people who live in rural America, and the distinct communities they call home.</p>
  2173.  
  2174.  
  2175.  
  2176. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Each week will start with a news round-up: think of this as the top headlines read through a rural lens. For instance, how does a government shutdown affect federal workers living in rural communities? Or, what do changes in Medicare policy mean for small town hospitals? We’ll also talk with reporters for in-depth but conversational segments going beyond the headlines, exploring their coverage on topics shaping rural communities. We’ll highlight how these stories unfold across different regions, offering local nuance with a broader perspective.</p>
  2177.  
  2178.  
  2179.  
  2180. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is not just news. It’s also a show focused on rural lives and livelihoods. That means weekly human-interest stories, hearing from hunters, farmers, gardeners, and shopkeepers; conversations with artists supporting and reimagining traditions; performances by regional musicians; and vibrant analysis of rural representation in pop culture. Add in a round of engaging trivia, and you’ve got a show that’s as rich and varied as the places it comes from.</p>
  2181.  
  2182.  
  2183.  
  2184. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Why?</strong></p>
  2185.  
  2186.  
  2187.  
  2188. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Public media just took a $1.1 billion hit, thanks to recent Congressional cuts, and as we’ve all seen, it’s rural broadcasters that bear the brunt. And even before these cuts, the rural communities we all cover have felt the consequences of a media landscape transformed by conglomerates, consolidation, and the declining resources available to local outlets.&nbsp;</p>
  2189.  
  2190.  
  2191.  
  2192. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is designed to fill programming gaps for those stations struggling to find quality content. It will be formatted to fit stations’ needs with internal breaks built in.&nbsp;The show&nbsp;gives stations an accessible, flexible, high-quality hour of content every week.</p>
  2193.  
  2194.  
  2195.  
  2196. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Who?</strong></p>
  2197.  
  2198.  
  2199.  
  2200. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is produced by the Center for Rural Strategies, publisher of the Daily Yonder. Centering rural stories with nuance, context, and care has made the Daily Yonder the nation’s preeminent source for rural news for nearly two decades. Rural Strategies’ additional programs, including Rural Assembly, Rural Faith Initiative, and Living Traditions, will provide enriching voices and stories to this collaborative radio show.&nbsp;<strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is hosted by Jared Ewy, a veteran radio personality and regular contributor to the Daily Yonder.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  2201. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-6-4-2026/2026/06/05/">Yonder Radio: Pride Month, Birthright Citizenship, and Rural Metal Music</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  2210. <title>Sandhill Cranes Bring Tourists to Rural Colorado, but Drought Threatens Both Wildlife and Business</title>
  2211. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/monte-vista-crane-festival/2026/06/04/</link>
  2212. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/monte-vista-crane-festival/2026/06/04/#respond</comments>
  2214. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Ilana Newman]]></dc:creator>
  2215. <pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  2216. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  2217. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240122</guid>
  2218.  
  2219. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2220. <p>It was sunset in early March and a chirping sound echoed across the fields of the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. Thousands of birds swirled overhead, coming down to roost. Every spring, sandhill cranes migrate through the valley, bringing locals and tourists alike to stand, binoculars at the ready, next to wetland areas where [&#8230;]</p>
  2221. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/monte-vista-crane-festival/2026/06/04/">Sandhill Cranes Bring Tourists to Rural Colorado, but Drought Threatens Both Wildlife and Business</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  2222. ]]></description>
  2223. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC03965-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2224. <figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Crane-sounds-2.wav" autoplay></audio></figure>
  2225.  
  2226.  
  2227.  
  2228. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It was sunset in early March and a chirping sound echoed across the fields of the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. Thousands of birds swirled overhead, coming down to roost. Every spring, sandhill cranes migrate through the valley, bringing locals and tourists alike to stand, binoculars at the ready, next to wetland areas where the birds gather.</p>
  2229.  
  2230.  
  2231.  
  2232. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">More than 20,000 of this sub-population of Rocky Mountain Greater Sandhill Cranes come to the area each spring, to rest on their way to their summer home in the northern Rockies. In celebration, the small town of Monte Vista hosts an annual <a href="https://mvcranefest.org/">Crane Festival</a>, which brings thousands of visitors from around Colorado, and the country, to see these unique birds.&nbsp;</p>
  2233.  
  2234.  
  2235.  
  2236. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“They sound like dinosaurs” was the refrain my colleague and I heard from just about everyone we talked to about the cranes. The oldest sandhill crane fossil is 2.5 million years old, making them quite a bit younger than dinosaurs, but they do famously have a call that brings dinosaurs to mind – although it&#8217;s a myth that the sound of a sandhill crane was used for the velociraptor in Jurassic Park.&nbsp;</p>
  2237.  
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  2239.  
  2240. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240128" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-12-1296x864.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Photographers flock to capture the cranes in the mornings and evenings while they gather in a field near the Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Ilana Newman/Daily Yonder.&nbsp;</em></figcaption></figure>
  2241.  
  2242.  
  2243.  
  2244. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“They&#8217;re almost as big as a person, they stand four feet tall, and they have an enormous wingspan,” Amy Engle, the director of the Monte Vista Crane Festival told us, while chatting outside the Ski Hi event complex, where the festival took place.</p>
  2245.  
  2246.  
  2247.  
  2248. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Engle said that around 2,000 people came to ticketed events during the Crane Festival weekend, which included a craft fair, guided tours, talks from scientists, and film screenings.&nbsp;</p>
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  2252. <figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-6 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex">
  2253. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" data-id="240126" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240126" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-10-1296x864.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /></figure>
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  2257. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" data-id="240129" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240129" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-13-1296x864.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /></figure>
  2258. </figure>
  2259.  
  2260.  
  2261.  
  2262. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>At the Ski Hi event complex, a craft fair with local vendors and nonprofits abounds with crane themed arts and crafts for Monte Vista Crane Festival. Photos by Ilana Newman/Daily Yonder.</em></p>
  2263.  
  2264.  
  2265.  
  2266. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>A Boon for Tourism</strong></h2>
  2267.  
  2268.  
  2269.  
  2270. <div class="wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex">
  2271. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“This is our slow period,” Engle said about tourism in the San Luis Valley in the spring. After hunting season in the fall, there isn’t much bringing visitors to Monte Vista until the busy summer season, she said, “so this is a great time of year to have the cranes here. It brings in a lot of tourists and a lot of people to spend money in restaurants and shops.”</p>
  2272. </div>
  2273.  
  2274.  
  2275. <div class="wp-block-image">
  2276. <figure class="alignright size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240125" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-9-1296x864.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Amy Engle is the director of the Monte Vista Crane Festival. 2025 was the festival’s 43rd year running. Photo by Ilana Newman/Daily Yonder.</em></figcaption></figure>
  2277. </div>
  2278.  
  2279.  
  2280. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Susan Turner and her husband drove down from Glenwood Springs, Colorado to see the cranes, after hearing that there were thousands of birds present this year. “This is more than I think we’ve ever seen before,” said Turner as we stood next to a field full of birds around sunset. “This is our third or fourth time coming, and sometimes we see a few, and sometimes we see hundreds or thousands.”</p>
  2281.  
  2282.  
  2283.  
  2284. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">A 2020 <a href="https://coloradoopenlands.org/wp-content/uploads/Cranes-Economic-Impact.pdf">study on the economic benefit of spring crane migration</a> in Monte Vista found that visitors to the valley over the 30-day period when the cranes are present contributed over $3 million to the local economy. The study estimated that around 16,500 non locals and 1,600 locals visited the wildlife refuge specifically to view cranes during that 30-day period.&nbsp;</p>
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  2288. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240133" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-17-1296x864.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /></figure>
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  2292. <figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-7 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex">
  2293. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" data-id="240130" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240130" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-14-1296x864.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /></figure>
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  2295.  
  2296.  
  2297. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" data-id="240124" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240124" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-8-1296x864.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /></figure>
  2298. </figure>
  2299.  
  2300.  
  2301.  
  2302. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>The town of Monte Vista has completely embraced their feathered friends who visit each spring. Many crane themed murals fill the streets and every year businesses sponsor temporary crane art on each block of downtown. Photos by Ilana Newman/Daily Yonder.&nbsp;</em></p>
  2303.  
  2304.  
  2305.  
  2306. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Mike Oldham is the administrator of the Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge where many of the cranes spend their stopover in the valley. We met him next to a field full of cranes – he estimated there were about 12,000-14,000 birds in the field of barley. “They really rely on it as a nice, easy food source to get before they move,” said Oldham.</p>
  2307.  
  2308.  
  2309.  
  2310. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">These specific barley fields are owned by the Molson Coors company, the American-Canadian brewer based in Golden, Colorado. Oldham said that the beer mogul donates the grain from these fields every year, specifically for the cranes’ diets.</p>
  2311.  
  2312.  
  2313.  
  2314. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240127" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-11-1296x864.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Mike Oldham, administrator of the Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge (left) and Mike Oldham (right, no relation), longtime Colorado Parks and Wildlife volunteer, help visitors learn about the migrating cranes at one of the birds’ common feeding fields. Photo by Ilana Newman/Daily Yonder.&nbsp;</em></figcaption></figure>
  2315.  
  2316.  
  2317.  
  2318. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Why Did Sandhill Cranes Pick the San Luis Valley?</strong></h2>
  2319.  
  2320.  
  2321.  
  2322. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Historically, the San Luis Valley was the perfect location for a “rest stop” on the way to northern breeding grounds. It’s still the cranes’ stopover of choice, but with increased drought in the valley, things are changing.</p>
  2323.  
  2324.  
  2325.  
  2326. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“At one time, the valley was a lot more wet. It&#8217;s a little drier now, and so it&#8217;s a little harder for them to make their way and find the different habitats and food,” Oldham said.</p>
  2327.  
  2328.  
  2329.  
  2330. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Cranes need <a href="https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023%20Crane%20Viewing%20Brochure.pdf">a specific environment for roosting, loafing, and feeding</a>. They spend their nights roosting in shallow open water, their mornings and evenings feeding on grains, and their days loafing around in wet meadows. Oldham said that’s why they choose the wildlife refuge, which has wetlands and fields that are particularly appealing to the migrating birds.</p>
  2331.  
  2332.  
  2333.  
  2334. <figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-8 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex">
  2335. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" data-id="240131" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240131" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-15-1296x864.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /></figure>
  2336.  
  2337.  
  2338.  
  2339. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" data-id="240132" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240132" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-16-1296x864.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /></figure>
  2340. </figure>
  2341.  
  2342.  
  2343.  
  2344. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Locals and tourists observe a field full of cranes outside of Monte Vista, Colorado. Photo by Ilana Newman/Daily Yonder.&nbsp;</em></p>
  2345.  
  2346.  
  2347.  
  2348. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It&#8217;s not the only spot in the valley that these cranes flock to, but with drier conditions, fewer locations are available to choose from. Drought conditions have inspired water conservation, meaning that water managers choose when water users are able to start pumping water for their fields. Most water users get water on April 1st, said Engle, but the refuge is able to pump water earlier than other places in the valley, so the birds have the open water they need to roost.</p>
  2349.  
  2350.  
  2351. <div class="wp-block-image">
  2352. <figure class="alignright size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="1170" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240141" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?resize=864%2C1296&amp;ssl=1 864w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?resize=507%2C760&amp;ssl=1 507w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?resize=1365%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1365w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C1800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 683w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C3000&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C600&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C1059&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?w=1707&amp;ssl=1 1707w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-scaled.jpg?w=1560&amp;ssl=1 1560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-file-864x1296.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Colorado Parks and Wildlife provides viewing stations for visitors to take a closer look at the visiting birds. First thing in the morning and just before dusk are some of the best times to see the sandhill cranes. Photo by Ilana Newman/Daily Yonder. <br></figcaption></figure>
  2353. </div>
  2354.  
  2355.  
  2356. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In addition to Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge land, cranes rely on private agriculture for their food, and some local farmers have conserved their fields with a goal of maintaining agricultural land for the migrating birds. <a href="https://iwjv.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Crane-Migration-Insights.pdf">A study by the Intermountain West Joint Ventures</a> showed that 90% of the land used by the cranes was private land, mostly flood-irrigated agricultural land.</p>
  2357.  
  2358.  
  2359.  
  2360. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-jocelyn-catterson-on-working-at-the-intersection-of-art-and-science/2026/05/01/">Jocelyn Catterson</a> works for the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust, which manages conserved agricultural land in the valley. During the festival, she led a tour of one of the conserved private properties to show visitors how much the birds rely on access to water and agricultural land. &#8220;A lot of people don&#8217;t know how important private land conservation is,” Catterson said. The land trust uses conservation easements to preserve private land in perpetuity –&nbsp;meaning it will never be divided up and can remain agricultural or available for wildlife like the cranes.&nbsp;</p>
  2361.  
  2362.  
  2363.  
  2364. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Sandhill cranes can live over 20 years and they mate for life. “What is really fun about the cranes is when they do what we call their dance,” said a Colorado Parks and Wildlife Service volunteer who has been helping out during the crane migration for 20 years. The cranes dance as a mating ritual or to strengthen a mating bond, jumping and bobbing round each other acrobatically to show their romantic interest.&nbsp;</p>
  2365.  
  2366.  
  2367.  
  2368. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-240123" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/image-7-1296x864.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>At the  convention center’s Colorado Parks and Wildlife booth during Monte Vista Crane Festival, volunteers reenact a Sandhill crane mating ritual “dance.” Photo by Ilana Newman/Daily Yonder.&nbsp;</em></figcaption></figure>
  2369.  
  2370.  
  2371.  
  2372. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">While the <a href="https://www.audubon.org/magazine/birding-booming-hobby-and-big-business">hobby of birdwatching has been on the rise</a>, with popular apps like<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/27/merlin-ai-assisted-birdsong-identifying-app-bird-species"> Merlin appealing to younger generations</a>, most birds don’t have the cuteness factor of a penguin or the fierce elegance of a hawk or an eagle. But people clearly find sandhill cranes captivating, whether it’s their size, their unique sound, or their quirky mating rituals. Or maybe it’s the sheer scale of it all.&nbsp;</p>
  2373.  
  2374.  
  2375.  
  2376. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“It&#8217;s just truly a bordering-on-spiritual thing to experience, to see that many of them in one place is incredible,” said Catterson.&nbsp;</p>
  2377.  
  2378.  
  2379.  
  2380. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Next year’s 44th Annual Monte Vista Crane Festival will be held from March 5-7 2027.&nbsp;</p>
  2381. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/monte-vista-crane-festival/2026/06/04/">Sandhill Cranes Bring Tourists to Rural Colorado, but Drought Threatens Both Wildlife and Business</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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