The Dark Money Defunding Rural Schools

A network of right-wing billionaires have bankrolled a war against public education. Now they’re stepping up attacks on rural legislators—but communities are fighting back.

Country Queers Spread the Love in Rural America

Rae Garringer’s new book documents more than a decade of LGBTQ+ rural life

The Christian Right’s Playbook to Elect Donald Trump in November

And how voters can use the tools of democracy to counter their plans
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What Makes Rural Voters Tick?

Decoding the Democrats’ dilemma in rural America

Project 2025 and Its Plans for the Nation’s Public Lands

Native leader says massive deregulation would lead to “total desecration”

Food & Agriculture

How Harris’s Economic Strategy Could Help Farmers

Taking on monopolies and lowering consumer costs is both a winning political strategy and the right thing to do

Lawsuit Against a Small Wisconsin Town Poses Critical Test for CAFO Regulations

The state’s biggest business lobby helps two residents challenge a Polk County town’s restrictions on livestock feeding operations
Bennet Goldstein, Wisconsin Watch

Harvesting Destruction

Reflections of a lifelong Montana rancher on the corporate takeover of our food system and what it means for the future of our nation and planet
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Politics & Policy

In Chicago, Rural Democrats Feel the Joy. Will It Last?

At the DNC’s Rural Council, Democrats see a bright future in rural America—but past losses cast a long shadow

As a Rural Ohioan, I See J.D. Vance for Who He Is

Vance’s extreme agenda runs counter to the rural culture of helping one’s neighbors

Can Tim Walz Help the Democrats Win Back Rural America?

Rural Democrats rally behind the Harris-Walz ticket but recognize the challenges ahead
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Native Life

The Indigenous Growers Reviving Hemp’s Deep Roots

“Cannabis and hemp offer solutions to many challenges in an industrial society”

Federal Courts Sentence Native Americans to Longer Prison Terms

How federal authority over tribes fails to provide equal justice under the law

The Bad River Chippewa Take on an Oil Giant: Review of ‘Bad River: A Story of Defiance’

A new film chronicles how the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa are united in their opposition to Enbridge pipelines
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Science & Environment

Signs of a Ceasefire in Michigan’s Energy Wars

Rural comunities have been fighting for nearly two decades over large-scale solar and wind farms. A new law might turn down the temperature as the state seeks to reduce carbon emissions from generating electricity.

What’s Fueling Michigan’s Green Energy Backlash?

A renewable energy push is bringing millions of dollars to Michigan’s rural communities. But not everyone is pleased.

On the Chopping Block

BLM plans to raze 380,000 acres of pinyon-juniper forests vital to Nevada tribes
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Religion

Civil Religion as a Gateway to Christian Nationalism

The inclusion of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance was a sectarian move whose exclusionary effects are increasingly evident in today’s religious landscape
Pigs on a truck on their way to a slaughterhouse

God and Hogs

The vertical integration of faith and death at Tyson Foods
a red rural church in the background with fields of crops in the foreground

The Politics of Loving Your Neighbor in Rural America

Reflections of a Lutheran pastor in Dunn County, Wisconsin
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Arts & Culture

A Supper Club State of Mind

Wisconsin has more supper clubs than any other state. But how long will this iconic institution survive?

The Colonial Theatre Sets the Stage for a Small Town’s Revival

New Hampshire’s largest historic preservation project revitalizes Laconia’s downtown
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History

Land of Liberty

Myth-making in the early American republic

Jim Hightower Confronts the 1980s Farm Crisis

"It's the same old story—Reagan helps the rich, and Lord help the rest of us."
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