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Odem Area Lions Club hosted a free Star Spangled Health Fair

Joan McKaughan, President of the Lion's Hall said the residents of the rural community don't have enough information on services in their area.

Jun 13 • 5:36 PM EDT • Health • kristv.com

Delaware program aims to expand maternal care access in rural communities

A new initiative in southern Delaware aims to reduce maternal health disparities by bringing prenatal and postpartum support directly to women.

Jun 13 • 5:30 AM EDT • Health • whyy.org

In Retrospect: Poland, Russia, Europe

In April I spent a few days with Zryw, a Polish non-profit organization that recruits young people to enter politics and public life. Their aim is to build a new generation of civic leaders in Poland. I’ve followed their evolution from the beginning; my son is one of the founders. (“Zryw” means “impulse” or “burst of speed” in Polish). Julie Chmielewska, one of Zryw’s leaders, interviewed me at the event. Here is the conversation, lightly edited for grammar and context: Julia Chmielewska: Assuming that culture shapes institutions, could we conclude that some cultures are more prone to authoritarianism? Anne Applebaum: I don’t think so. Every culture, every nation, and every country has the potential for change. When we look at history, we can see that nations do change. Poland has changed, for example, from the 1980s to today. There’s a completely different mentality here than the one I encountered when I first visited, in 1988. The current generation sees the world through a different frame. So no, I don’t believe that certain nations are doomed to authoritarianism, or to anything. Of course, there are political and cultural traditions, but they can always be challenged. JC: So do you think there’s something intrinsic in human nature that pushes people to democracy, freedom? AA: I think there is something in human nature, a deep instinct, that pushes people towards freedom, yes. People who live in authoritarian countries – and I’ve heard this from them over and over again – sooner or later find themselves angered by a feeling of helplessness. They can see the unfairness of crooked courts, irrational political decisions. They naturally dislike the fact that somebody has all the power while they have none. In those circumstances, people who have no political background at all sometimes are politicized just by that frustration. I’m thinking of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, for example, who was a Belarusian housewife, until the circumstances of her husband’s arrest forced her to become a politician. I met a woman who is a Uyghur from China, and who had come to live in Turkey. After several of her family members were arrested, she too was propelled into a political role. These kinds of experiences make people interested in democracy or political reform, even if they thought they didn’t care. I also think that the opposite is true: some people instinctively prefer homogeneity, order, hierarchy. They don’t like the confrontation of opinions or the noise of debate, and they lean towards a single leader or a unified regime. I think that most of modern history is shaped by the clash between those two different sides of human nature. JC: Which force do you find more powerful today? AA: I think they both have a lot of power and there’s no way of predicting who wins. Even in countries that seem very shut off or stuck in an authoritarian system can change. We’ve seen that happen. And vice versa, I think democracies can also begin to fail and slide into authoritarianism. So it’s very important not to be complacent in either direction. JC: I want to go into your history and your experiences. You’ve lived in Russia during a time of incredible change in the late 80s, and then you came back to do research in post-Soviet Russia. AA: I was a student in Russia just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. I then traveled and worked there extensively in the 1990s, and I met people who really were full of hope. They hoped that Russia could become a democracy, or at least a place that guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of the press. These weren’t ideas that came from Washington. Although now the narrative in the Kremlin is different, I met many people who were working towards exactly that kind of transformation. A friend of mine ran a series of seminars – once a year, and then later several times a year, in cities all over Russia – designed to get people to discuss politics in new ways. She invited young politicians and journalists, as well as foreigners. I went to many of them, in Moscow as well as Volgograd and Novosibirsk. Over two decades, hundreds of people came to these seminars, and all of them wanted Russia to be different. I remain convinced that many Russians still want Russia to be different. It’s just that the old system, in the form of Putin, a representative of that system, returned. The KGB reimposed their power. And this wasn’t because of something to do with culture, this was to do with money and politics, and who was in charge. JC: You’ve partially answered my question... I wanted to ask whether that excitement of the 1990s was an exception from the Russian historical norm which has been rather authoritarian? AA: Of course, if you look at the history of Russia since the 18th century, there have always been liberal groups, reformers and revolutionaries. There were the Decembrists, in the early 19th century, and the rural populists later on, who tried to organize the peasantry. A significant group of liberal Russians appeared at the turn of the 20th century, people like the father of the writer Vladimir Nabokov, who was a Russian politician before the revolution. These groups were small in number, but sometimes had a broader significance. The Russian dissident movement in the 1950s and 1960s actually invented the modern human rights movement. It was their idea to hold the leaders of the Soviet Union accountable for the language they used, to remind them of the treaties they had signed and the promised they had made. They created the Helsinki group, for example, that held Soviet leadership to the language of the Helsinki Treaty, which formally ended the Second World War and which contained guarantees of human rights, at least on paper. That idea spread to Eastern Europe, and similar tactics were used here in Poland. (Benjamin Nathans recently wrote a great book about the Soviet dissidents, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause) JC: But seemingly, even if they do ever get power, they could never hold on to it. AA: We don’t know, because they have never really had power. But in any case, we also don’t know what will happen in the future. There is no reason to assume that Russia will forever be condemned to totalitarianism. Even during the first fifteen years of Putin’s regime there was some form of democratic politics. Only when the full-scale war began did he bring everything to an end: he shut down all remaining independent organizations and killed his most important opponent, Alexi Navalny. But does that mean he is popular, that he enjoys legitimacy? Even now, we don’t really know what Russians think about him, or about the war. There is no way of doing real polling in Russia because nobody will answer an independent pollster over the phone. JC: Do you think that the flock of young people, especially young men, who fled Russia after the start of the war represent a continuation of liberal movements that refuse to partake in the authoritarian state, or do you think they are moving for the sake of self-preservation – “I don’t want to go to the army, so I leave”? AA: I’m sure it’s both. I actually know many people who left Russia for political reasons either in the very last years before the war, or else just after the war began. JC: And do you see a change in the young generation versus the old one that have fled? AA: It’s hard for me to say because the people who I know were mostly already politicized. I do know some younger people who left, but most of them were already either active in the opposition, or working as journalists. Many of them very self-consciously think of themselves as maintaining Russian culture abroad, just as in the 20th century the Soviet dissidents or the anti-communist White Russians once thought of themselves as people who maintained the true Russian culture, outside of Bolshevik Russia. JC: Let’s move on to Poland. One of your first experiences with Poland was reporting on Margaret Thatcher’s first state visit, in the autumn of 1988. You followed her around the farmers’ market. AA: She was making a symbolic gesture. She wanted to welcome free markets, but the only one she could really visit was the farmers’ market at Hala Mirowska. JC: And I want to talk about this area because today you can look out of any window in that district, Mirów, and see rows and rows of skyscrapers. How does it feel to see a country built from the ground in such a short time, both politically and economically? AA: You know, when you’re living in a period of dramatic change, it’s always hard to know whether the change is positive or negative. The transformation in Poland created winners and losers, as well as new classes of people, new political movements of different kinds. At the time, it sometimes just felt like turbulence. Now, we can look back at the 1990s and early 2000s in Poland and see in retrospect that the country was headed in towards prosperity and European integration. In around 2009 or 2010, I remember speaking to a woman who worked cleaning government offices, and who asked me if her daughter should study in Amsterdam or in London. This seemed to me to be a real transformation, and it happened very fast: within a few years, Poles stopped feeling like second-class Europeans, and a generation of younger Poles appeared who had no qualms about crossing borders. JC: We again live in turbulent times. Do you think we’re heading towards positive outcomes? AA: I can’t make predictions, because everything that happens tomorrow depends on what people do today. Also, history doesn’t have a trajectory. It doesn’t move in a particular direction. You only think it does afterwards. As I said, you can look afterwards at Poland in the 1990s and you could say this was a period of great progress. But not everybody at the time saw that. Sometimes people are very wrong about a given country’s trajectory. I remember people writing about Ukraine in the 1990s, about how dangerous it was that Ukraine was independent, that this was going to be an anti-semitic state, that Ukrainian nationalism was going to come back... and although you can say many bad things about Ukraine, the country made many bad choices, actually it became a pretty tolerant state which now has a Jewish president and until recently a Muslim defense minister. JC: In the 1990s Poland’s and Ukraine’s GDP were roughly similar. Ukraine was even a bit richer. So the starting point was similar for both of these countries, but they’ve turned out very, very differently. Even if we stop in 2014. Why do you think Ukraine “chose East”? Was it external influence? AA: No, I think Ukraine was in a different position. First of all, central and eastern Ukraine had been part of the Soviet Union since the 1920s, and had therefore experienced a longer period of occupation, repression, Sovietization and even Russification. Ukraine did not have, as Poland did, an alternative elite: a large cadre of economists and politicians, who already had some experience in opposition politics and in independent thinking. In Poland, the transformative finance minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, had already thought about how an economy might be decentralized before he took office. We can argue about how successful he was, but at least he was prepared to try something new. In Ukraine, people weren’t prepared. For one, there hadn’t been much space even for an illegal opposition in the previous couple of decades. Ukraine was also in many ways still emerging from colonial occupation. For the previous couple of centuries, many of the most capable Ukrainians had moved to Russia, and the first generation of leaders in independent Ukraine tended to be former Soviet apparatchiks. They didn’t immediately seek to become closer to western Europe. Instead, they looked for some kind of economic and political “third way” and an accomodation with Russia. Ukraine became stuck in this position, half-in, half-out and became pretty profoundly corrupt. JC: The Polish alternative elite had a vision of where they wanted the country to go. I think the general perception now is that this vision ends with the next election, right? Is this a natural process of gaining power? AA: Their vision, and it was shared by the time by politicians who now call themselves both left and right, was that Poland should join the EU and NATO, as fast as possible. My husband (Radek Sikorski) was in the very first government that said it wanted to join NATO. At the time this was taken very badly in Washington: the demand for NATO membership absolutely came from Poland, not from the US. But even then, in the early 1990s, many Poles already understood that the Russian sphere of influence would grow once again, that it was important to become part of the transatlantic alliance and an integrated Europe as fast as possible: NATO, the EU, the Council of Europe, all of the trading and security alliances. That consensus lasted through several different governments and over many years, even governments containing former communists. For twenty years, right, left and center disagreed about many things, but they all agreed on the direction that the country should go. In retrospect, that consensus created the basis for prosperity in Poland. JC: And regarding the Polish-Ukrainian relations. We know that antagonisms, e.g. the myth of Wołyń [a massacre of Poles that took place in what is now Western Ukraine, in 1943] are increasingly used in Polish political discourse today. In Ukraine, nationalist historians make heroes out of UPA, the Ukrainian revolutionary army, which is held responsible for this tragedy. Where do you see a start for burying the hatchet? Is the reconciliation of our nations possible? AA: So here’s a strange thing: For more than a decade after they both gained independence, Poland and Ukraine participated in a number of projects that were designed to solve exactly these kinds of Polish-Ukrainian differences. Books were published that were jointly written by Polish and Ukrainian historians, monuments were built. These projects were successful: If you’d asked me this question in 2010, I would have said that there are no real historical issues between Poland and Ukraine, that the two countries had mostly reconciled. For a number of reasons, this began to shift. In Poland, children and grandchildren of victims of the Wołyń massacre felt their tragedy hadn’t been fully recognized. In Ukraine, nationalist groups wanted the UPA partisans who had fought against the Soviet Union recognized for their heroism, despite the fact that some in this broad and not well-defined group were also linked to Wołyń. In both eastern Poland and western Ukraine, the memory of the ethnic cleansing that took place there in the late 1940s - Poles were moved West, Ukrainians East - to accomodate new borders has left feelings of displacement and bitterness. The wave of Ukrainian immigration, which started before the war, may have provoked some of this. But don’t underestimate the role played by Russia, which has always wanted to create discord between Poland and Ukraine, and pumps out propaganda to that effect in both countries. Vandalism on both sides of the border, damage done to cemeteries and monuments, is sometimes carried out by provacateurs working for Russia, just to create bad feelings. The Polish-Ukrainian conflict also hides a different reality: although there are real grievances and bad memories, the truth is that the biggest tragedies both nations experienced in the twentieth century were inflicted by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. That should unite these two countries, not divide them. JC: This week (19.04.2026 – Ed.) in Hungary we saw that using historical narratives to create grievance has no longer worked. Are you optimistic about the direction after Orban’s loss? AA: The Hungarian election was really important because it shows that people can actually resist powerful, dominant propaganda. The ruling party Fidesz controlled all of the TV, 90% of the newspapers, the constitutional court, the bureaucracy... and yet people had the nerve to vote against it and resist it. It’s also an important election because Hungary created a huge network of well-funded think tanks and foundations that were funding other far right groups and projects. So that loss is going to have a knock-on effect in other places too, maybe even in Poland. JC: What you’ve said about resisting propaganda reminds me of one of the interviews you did about talking to Russians in the post-Soviet era who claimed that people knew that the system was lying. Why do people choose to believe in these regimes anyway? AA: Because it’s useful. Stephen Kotkin, an American historian, once described how people would learn how to “speak Bolshevik”: It was just a language that you needed to use in order to get by in society. If you didn’t talk the way the regime wanted you to talk, then you might have problems, or lose your job, or your kids would not get into university. It was a way of getting along. Communist Poland was similar, at least in the early years. When I was writing a book about the Sovietization of Eastern Europe after World War II, I met a lot of people who wanted to talk a lot about the war, when many of them had done really heroic things. But almost nobody wanted to talk about the decade afterwards, between 1945 and 1956. This was when you had the short period of terror, violence and Polish Stalinism. To stay safe, people felt the need to just go along with what others were saying, or stay out of politics, or use communist jargon without necessarily believing it. I don’t judge them for it, and I wouldn’t describe all of those people as collaborators. It’s easy to feel moral certainty in retrospect, because we know that communism ended. But if you were living in 1949, it might not have been clear to you that communism was going to end. In very repressive societies, maybe about 10% of people who are really evil – collaborators, torturers. Maybe 10% of people are really brave and who find ways to resist. And then around 80% of people have kids, they have parents, they have to have jobs and they’ve had to get through it somehow. Strange though it may sound, I’ve found that the work I did on that book is now very useful in explaining some of what’s going on in the United States today. There are plenty of members of the Republican Party in Congress who know perfectly well that Donald Trump says many things that aren’t true. But they avoid criticizing him because it’s inconvenient, because they would get in trouble, because someone would attack them on the internet. So actually you don’t even need mass terror to get people to conform. JC: Is Gen Z reinventing agency? AA: We’ll see. In any generation you can find groups of people who want agency. If you live in a society that’s unfair, for example where a tiny number of people have captured most of the wealth, then at a certain point people rebel. This is always easier for younger people, who have you have less to lose. The question now is how the internet will affect the relationships between citizens and the state, and how it will change organizations. The “Twitter revolutions” people spoke about as early as 2008-9, mass protests organized online, have often proved to be very superficial. Although you can easily join something just by clicking, the work of creating a real movement requires physical participation. Successful mass movements of the past, for example the Civil Rights movement in the United States, were built by people who had spent many years together. They had participated in non-violent workshops together. They practiced and prepared. Just using the you can get everybody to show up at a certain moment, but then when the protest is broken up, nothing happens. It’s also true that the repressive regimes have more recently learned how to use the internet to undermine leaders and movements. Most of all, they now understand how to make people cynical. The form of propaganda that most modern authoritarians use - and I think the Russians really pioneered this - deploys sneering cynicism. Instead of praising the rulers, the regime propagandists mock the opposition movement leadership for being supposedly corrupt or sexually degenerate, with the goal of undermining any kind of idealism. JC: MAGA grew on the internet? AA: MAGA is a real grassroots movement. They had symbols, red hats, they showed up at rallies. But you’re right that the cynicism, the sarcasm and the distrust that the movement embodies came originally from the internet, and this is different. Fifty years ago, most European political parties had a social base in real organizations, in trade unions for Social Democrats, in church groups for Christian Democrats. As people stopped going to church and as the trade unions became smaller, the social base of these parties disappeared. Now people who wouldn’t have known one another in the past meet on the internet and create new movements, many of which don’t last. JC: Is history ending? Going in stale circles? AA: History never ends. In truth, human beings want contradictory things at the same time: order and freedom, stability and change. These things are never resolved, and when a society swings too far in one direction, people always push it the other way. But each time that happens, the result is different. Certainly it is true that we are now in a period when old philosophers and ideas from the 1930s are undergoing a revival. Carl Schmitt, who was a philosopher who was very influential on the Nazis, is back as an influence on both the far left and the far right, once again inspiring people to think that all politics has to be existential, that all politics is about defining and defeating enemies. In the US, some are also bringing back dominionism, the idea that we need a Christian and not a secular state. It’s also true that we are living through a more fundamental shift. The old left-right divide, which was mostly about the size of the state, is much less important now. Instead, we are arguing about more fundamental things: what are our rights, what protects our freedom. Or how much power do we want to give small elites, versus how much power to give ordinary people. In America a small group of very wealthy people now control information, because they control the social media platforms and AI, which means they determine what people will read and learn. Finding a way to preserve preserve zones of autonomy and independent thinking, this is going to be the main task for the next generation. JC: What is the one book that a person interested in Central Europe should read? AA: You could read my book “Iron Curtain: the Crushing of Eastern Europe” which tells the story of how the Soviet Union imposed its culture on the region. Or read Tim Snyder’s history of the region, “The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999.” And everyone should read “The Captive Mind” by Czesław Miłosz, which describes exactly the phenomenon we were talking about: why do people collaborate? I joined Scott Galloway and the brilliant Fiona Hill in a discussion about the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the future of global power, and what these conflicts reveal about America's role in the world. Scott told us that this was the 400th edition of his podcast, which is quite a number: My friend Francesco Chiamulera runs a brilliant series of literary events, Una Colline di Libri, A Hill of Books, in the Prosecco Hills, a region of vineyards and elegant hill towns in the Veneto, north of Venice. We did an event in Vittorio Veneto and also drove and biked around the countryside. Buy Autocracy Inc Buy Iron Curtain Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

Jun 13 • 4:15 AM EDT • Politics • anneapplebaum.substack.com

Harry Strunk Lake Health Notice

Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department (SWNPHD) has been notified of high levels of E. Coli at Harry Strunk Lake in Frontier County also known as Medicine Creek Reservoir. This means the water…

Jun 12 • 5:00 PM EDT • Health • ruralradio.com

Public Health at an Inflection Point: Aligning State Systems to Strengthen Population Health

The US public health system is facing an inflection point characterized by chronic underinvestment, workforce and service delivery challenges, outdated data infrastructure, growing health inequities, and increasing instability within the broader health care safety net including projected Medicaid coverage changes and continued rural hospital closures.

Jun 12 • 10:15 AM EDT • Health • milbank.org

Bipartisan Policy Center to Host Webinar on Rural Health Transformation Program

The Bipartisan Policy Center will host a webinar June 30 from 11 a.m. to noon EDT on how states are leveraging funding through the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) to strengthen rural healthcare delivery through technology and workforce investments.

Jun 12 • 9:28 AM EDT • Health • mha.org

Rural health care shifts in Audrain County four years after hospital closed

MU Health Care highlights the success of its Mexico urgent care clinic, but a community members questions whether the services it offers are enough.

Jun 11 • 5:00 PM EDT • Health • komu.com

CMS approves budget for GO-NORTH, the state’s federally funded rural health program

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved New Hampshire’s spending plan for a large tranche of federal money that will go toward rural health initiatives, state officials announced Thursday.

Jun 11 • 2:14 PM EDT • Health • newhampshirebulletin.com

Grounds for celebration: Dean’s Beans named Massachusetts Rural Business of the Year

When founder Dean Cycon stepped down from his Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Co. in 2023, he didn’t look for a wealthy outside buyer or a massive conglomerate to take over. Instead, he handed the keys directly to the roasters, packers and office staff who helped him build the brand. Three years into its journey as […]

Jun 11 • 12:04 PM EDT • Business • recorder.com

Sasquatch ‘sightings’ reignite fervour and scepticism about ape-like beast

Latest reports from rural Ontario add to tales going back decades about bipedal creature also known as Bigfoot

Jun 11 • 10:30 AM EDT • Technology • theguardian.com

US congressman helps secure $750,000 for rural hospital’s radiology expansion

Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, announced the news on June 10, with the money going toward Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg.

Jun 11 • 2:37 AM EDT • Business • radiologybusiness.com

'A great opportunity': $10 million is transforming how Triad EMS agencies approach healthcare

The 'NC Rural Health Transformation Program' aims to expand access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment services for communities across NC.

Jun 10 • 7:01 PM EDT • Health • wxii12.com

Could Control of Congress Run Through Northern Maine?

The state’s vast rural areas, which make up the swing Second Congressional District, will be important in November.

Jun 10 • 11:45 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

Oops, Scientists May Have Severely Miscalculated How Many Humans Are on Earth

While most estimates place the current human population at around 8.2 billion, a study suggests we might be vastly underrepresenting rural areas.

Jun 10 • 9:44 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com

Rural Interprofessional Longitudinal Scholars serve rural communities

Carolina, UNC Pembroke and UNC Wilmington collaborate on this program to address the state’s health workforce shortage.

Jun 10 • 9:31 AM EDT • Health • unc.edu

New exhibit showcasing farmstead inspired art

“Down on the Farm” exhibit brings rural life art to downtown Shelbyville, opening June 20 at Flourishes and running through August 29.

Jun 9 • 7:59 AM EDT • Entertainment • breezecourier.com

Unique Nebraska business offers retail storefront for farmers

Rural residents near O’Neill banded together to open a store where they could market their home-raised meat and other farm products.

Jun 9 • 3:00 AM EDT • Business • farmprogress.com

Study: Access to Health Care for Rural Residents with Disabilities Severely Lacking in All Researched Areas

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

Jun 8 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • dailyyonder.com

How the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe Built a Resilient Rural Health Clinic from the Ground Up

Today, a clinic founded by the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana’s Health Department serves 1,700 tribal members and more than 250 non-tribal patients. Wraparound services connect patients to nutrit…

Jun 8 • 5:43 AM EDT • Health • directrelief.org

Alaska health officials advance over 400 projects for Rural Health Transformation funding

The projects were selected from nearly 1,800 proposals that came from more than 800 organizations and companies.

Jun 7 • 3:33 PM EDT • Health • adn.com

13 rural hospitals in the Commonwealth at risk of closure, report finds

13 of the 36 rural hospitals in the Commonwealth are at risk of closure, according to a report from the Joint Commission on Health Care (JCHC).

Jun 6 • 3:00 PM EDT • Health • wset.com

Seminole EMS Director testifies before Texas House Committee on Public Health

Seminole EMS Director Carly French testifies before the Texas House Committee on Public Health, asking the legislature to consider changes to rules surrounding a grant that helps rural EMS agencies purchase new ambulances.

Jun 6 • 8:15 AM EDT • Health • kcbd.com

Gov. Morrisey earmarks $3.4M for statewide local health challenge under rural program

Jun 5 • 10:28 PM EDT • Health • wchstv.com

E-bike safety; lung cancer treatment and prevention; keeping CMA Festival attendees safe; plus other stories with Vanderbilt Health sources

WKRN News 2 interviewed Jeffrey Upperman, MD, FACS, Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatric Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, about e-bike related injuries following the recent death of a Brentwood High student and a proposal to require safety training before students could ride a bike on a school campus in Williamson County. Fabien Maldonado, MD, MSc,Professor of Medicine and Thoracic Surgery, was on WTVF News Channel 5‘s live studio show, “Openline,” with host Ben Hall, to discuss lung cancer, treatment and prevention. WSMV’s “Today In Nashville” program hosted Vanderbilt LifeFlight paramedic/flight nurse practitioner Tony Smith to talk about safety for the CMA Festival. The New York Times reporter Carl Zimmer interviewed James Crowe, MD, Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Antibody Therapeutics, for a story about the race to find vaccines and treatments as Ebola spreads. The Vanderbilt Health News release about the pilot clinical trial conducted by Vanderbilt Health and Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc., that confirms the safety of ifetroban and supports the further development of the drug to prevent cancer metastasis, was picked up by Reuters, Stock Titan,and others. Women We Admire has named Lee Ann Liska, President and Chief Operating Officer, to its list of top women leaders of Nashville for 2026. Radiology Business, Aunt Minnie, Bioengineer, and Imaging Technology News covered the study from Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI, the Mildred Thornton Stahlman Professor in Rural Health and professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, that found Black and Hispanic people, while known to be far more apt to have dementia, are significantly less apt than other racial and ethnic groups to show Alzheimer’s pathology on brain scans. STAT News interviewed Deva Sharma, MD, Transfusion Medicine & Hematology-Oncology, for a story about more patients requesting unvaccinated blood and what it means for the medical system at large. Yahoo! Health reporter Korin Miller interviewed Gitanjali Srivastava, MD, Director of Obesity Medicine, for a story about how semaglutide and tirzepatide compare. William Schaffner, MD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, was quoted by several news outlets about public health issues, including: NBC News (new COVID vaccinations); Medscape (pneumonia and sepsis); and CNN (protection from contagious viruses). Shelbyville Times-Gazette is repurposing Jessica Pasley’s July 2025 Vanderbilt Health News story on tick-borne illnesses as a front-page story.

Jun 5 • 10:54 AM EDT • Health • news.vumc.org

The Odds: Rural voters

Jun 5 • 9:49 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

I've Used Starlink Every Day for 4 Years. Its Speeds Have Taken an Unexpected Turn

Years of testing Starlink from rural Idaho have transformed my home internet access, but my 2026 performance data raises new questions about speed, pricing, and priority tiers.

Jun 5 • 9:16 AM EDT • Technology • pcmag.com

NM Health Care Authority announces $76M in federal rural healthcare funds

When fully implemented, the program aims to reduce long wait times, chronic disease risk factors and readmission rates to rural hospitals.

Jun 4 • 6:33 PM EDT • Health • sourcenm.com

Rural health network aims to strengthen independent hospitals

The North Shore Health Board received a presentation from Cibolo Rural Health Network on the benefits of the Headwaters Network, a high-value network made up of Minnesota’s rural independent health care providers. “I would say a relevant correlator to the high-value network is that of a farmers’ co-op,” Brittany Sachdeva, chief operating officer for Cibolo,...

Jun 4 • 6:20 AM EDT • Health • wtip.org

Wilton Simpson backs ‘principled conservative’ Liesa Priddy in HD 82

'Liesa understands what it takes to safeguard Florida’s family farms, defend private property rights, and preserve our rural communities.'

Jun 3 • 12:55 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com

NEWS RELEASE - WNMU Expands Telemental Health Training for Rural New Mexico

For rural and underserved communities in New Mexico, accessing professional counseling services has historically meant long travel and logistical challenges. To address this, Western New Mexico University (WNMU) is working to eliminate these barriers by expanding its telemental health training and services and positioning itself as a leader in modern counseling education. Central to this… Continue reading NEWS RELEASE – WNMU Expands Telemental Health Training for Rural New Mexico

Jun 3 • 11:00 AM EDT • Health • wnmu.edu

Michigan’s rural health investment must be built to scale

Michigan’s rural health investment should not simply fund isolated success stories. It should accelerate the movement of proven models from one community to the next.

Jun 3 • 8:09 AM EDT • Health • detroitnews.com

Marquette County Board passes resolution supporting rural mental health

The resolution also ensures rural input on policy decisions through a formal consultation process

Jun 3 • 6:10 AM EDT • Health • uppermichiganssource.com

First rural health grants in MS include building, technology upgrades

Mississippi unveiled the first initiatives funded by the Rural Health Transformation Program after experts said it was the least transparent state.

Jun 3 • 6:05 AM EDT • Health • clarionledger.com

Morrisey announces $3.4M health funding opportunity

KINGWOOD – West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey spent Monday morning at Mon Health Preston Memorial Hospital in Kingwood speaking about community-based health. He was joined by local representatives, members of the Preston County Commission, state officials, local community partners and hospital officials. The purpose of his visit was to announce a $3.4 million statewide funding […]

Jun 2 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • newsandsentinel.com

5 things to watch in Tuesday's primaries in California, Iowa and beyond

Democrats are banking on a rare chance to regain ground in Iowa, a rural state that has repeatedly eluded them in recent years. Republicans, meanwhile, are grappling with a New Jersey congressman whose unexplained absence could put their already slim majority at risk.

Jun 2 • 6:45 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org

Rep. Davis appeals for federal funds to reopen bankrupt rural hospital

Rep. Davis is urging President Donald Trump to provide tens of millions of dollars in federal funding to reopen Martin General Hospital.

Jun 1 • 3:30 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Governor Morrisey Announces $3.4M Rural Local Health Challenge Funding Opportunity

Governor Patrick Morrisey announced a $3.4 million for a statewide local health challenge funding opportunity to advance prevention-focused, community-based health initiatives through West Virginia’s continued participation in the federal Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP).

Jun 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • governor.wv.gov

KDHE awards nearly $80M to health care organizations across Kansas

39 organizations across Kansas were awarded grants, as part of KDHE’s initiative to strengthen rural health care in the state.

May 30 • 1:13 PM EDT • Health • wibw.com

Paul Renner launches 'rural values' tour

North Florida Republicans will get to meet the candidate in the coming days.

May 30 • 8:32 AM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com

A Paralympian and ‘prairie populist’: How this Iowa Senate candidate is trying to spark a rural revival for Democrats

Theresa Weeks was making spaghetti when a Senate candidate came knocking on her door.

May 30 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

Trump’s $50B rural health bet meets a healthcare desert in North Carolina

As Martin County residents struggle without a hospital, a federal rural health fund may offer little relief.

May 30 • 4:00 AM EDT • Health • northcarolinahealthnews.org

Bassfield’s Beaver Creek Distillery named state’s Rural Small Business of the Year

Bassfield's Beaver Creek Distillery has been named the SBA's Rural Small Business of the Year in Mississippi.

May 29 • 8:55 PM EDT • Business • wdam.com

Legislation would extend funding for rural Maine hospitals

The current test program is set to expire at the end of this year: “We have a very high reliance on public payers. And oftentimes, those payers don’t reimburse the hospitals that provide care even at the level that it costs hospitals to provide that care."

May 29 • 1:00 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Ron DeSantis says Miami-Dade, Palm Beach should be more aggressive in slashing homestead taxes

Big cities would already be on the hook for rural areas with lower tax bases, but DeSantis thinks they can do even more.

May 29 • 12:01 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com

ECU Health expands rural residency programs to address eastern NC doctor shortages

ECU Health Medical Center is expanding its rural residency training programs in an effort to strengthen the physician workforce across eastern North Carolina.Th

May 28 • 12:19 PM EDT • Health • wcti12.com

Rural Health Transformation: Insights from States

The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) will provide $50 billion to states over the next five years to transform rural health care. States received award decisions in late 2025 and are moving fast, with funding deadlines and reporting requirements already on the horizon. This program is rolling out as rural areas face significant federal Medicaid cuts over the next decade. What does this mean for Congress? Join the Bipartisan … Continued

May 28 • 11:47 AM EDT • Health • bipartisanpolicy.org

ECU Health Medical Center Graduate Medical Education Program expands rural residency tracks to strengthen physician workforce

New training tracks in Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Obstetrics-Gynecology and Pediatrics will increase access to care in rural communities

May 28 • 11:22 AM EDT • Health • ecuhealth.org

UNO Research Shows What Motivates Female Students to Pursue STEM Research Experiences

The study of urban and rural schools revealed the important role science fairs play in inspiring young learners.

May 27 • 1:53 PM EDT • Science • unomaha.edu

Scotland Health’s home-based care program earns AHA Rural Hospital Excellence in Innovation Award recognition

Scotland Health at Home began with one goal: Connect patients to treatment, no matter where they were.

May 27 • 1:49 PM EDT • Health • aha.org

Health Care Industry Trend Watch: Week of May 25, 2026

Attention now shifts to how states will deploy and account for Rural Health Transformation Program funding.

May 27 • 9:40 AM EDT • Health • realeconomy.rsmus.com

Ben Butler raises $200K in 8 days for CD 9 run

He also announced endorsements from 4 Sheriffs and 10 rural County Commissioners.

May 27 • 8:50 AM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com

Trump’s $50B Rural Health Bet Meets a Healthcare Desert in North Carolina

In Martin County, it can be 20 miles or more to the closest emergency room. Healthcare gaps there show the finite reach of a $50 billion rural health fund.

May 27 • 5:04 AM EDT • Health • citizen-times.com

Healthcare bills spurred by $50B federal program await Alaska Gov. Dunleavy’s signature

State lawmakers passed two bills on the last day of the legislative session aimed at fulfilling requirements of the federal Rural Health Transformation Program.

May 26 • 8:35 PM EDT • Health • alaskapublic.org

Kiva Oregon Raises Funds to Keep Zero-Interest Rural Business Loans Flowing

Rural-focused lending hub has deployed more than $600,000 in zero-interest, zero-fee loans to Oregon small business owners.

May 26 • 6:17 PM EDT • Business • oregonbusiness.com

Governors’ Policy Actions on Behavioral Health Access

(Download) Behavioral health workforce shortages remain a significant barrier to accessing care in rural areas across the United States. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) State of the Behavioral Health Workforce, (2025) substantial shortages are projected for many occupations in the behavioral health workforce over the next 15 years, including psychologists, psychiatrists, […]

May 26 • 5:21 PM EDT • Health • nga.org

Rural health care infrastructure: Trends and considerations for the future

America's Rural Future symposium explores the challenges and policy shifts reshaping rural health care infrastructure, and what communities, states, and policymakers must consider to build lasting, locally responsive systems.

May 26 • 8:30 AM EDT • Health • brookings.edu

Feds greenlight Wyoming’s plan to spend $205M on healthcare initiatives

CMS approved Wyoming’s Year 1 plan to spend $205 million from the Rural Health Transformation Program to support rural hospitals, build workforce and bolster preventive health.

May 25 • 10:00 AM EDT • Health • kotatv.com

VA hasn't budged on reduced veteran home health rates in New Mexico, rural Texas

The next steps in reversing the rate cuts will be legislation and, if necessary, litigation, advocates said.

May 24 • 12:44 PM EDT • Health • santafenewmexican.com

How $200 million will be doled out to Wyoming health care providers

The federal Rural Health Transformation Program funds come after months of negotiations, which led Wyoming to drop a planned investment fund. Instead, the state will focus on basic care.

May 22 • 7:27 PM EDT • Health • wyomingpublicmedia.org

SGMC Health Lanier Joins Statewide KidsABC Pediatric Health Initiative

SGMC Health Lanier announces its participation in the Kids Alliance for Better Care (KidsABC), a statewide rural pediatric health initiative

May 22 • 12:36 PM EDT • Health • sgmc.org

How states can incentivize local investing to find new capital for businesses and housing

Geographic and corporate concentration in banking and retail is limiting entrepreneurship in many U.S. communities. Existing place-based policies help, but often fail to deliver scalable, tailored investment solutions broadly across rural and urban areas.

May 22 • 11:10 AM EDT • Business • brookings.edu

Governor Ivey Announces Six Alabama Rural Health Transformation Program Workshops Across State Next Week -

MONTGOMERY – Governor Kay Ivey on Thursday announced that the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) is hosting a series of six workshops across Alabama next week for interested parties to learn more about the new Alabama Rural … Continued

May 21 • 2:59 PM EDT • Health • governor.alabama.gov

How Allie Clifton built a modern sports media blueprint

It’s 2,200 miles from Los Angeles to the small town of Van Wert, Ohio. And for Allie Clifton, her roots in the rural northwest corner of the Buckeye State are what have anchored her journey to national prominence as a basketball voice. “To be where I’m at now, I don’t take it lightly. I don’t…

May 21 • 11:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Trade, politics and inflation impacting state and county seasonal tourism

Drops are steep; rural communities trying to draw people from closer to home.

May 20 • 3:50 PM EDT • Politics • wgcu.org

Wyoming’s plan for $205M in Rural Health Transformation funds approved

The plan doesn’t include a perpetuity fund. It was meant to stretch out more than a billion federal dollars for decades to come. Instead, Wyoming will spend the funds this year on sustaining basic care.

May 19 • 6:29 PM EDT • Health • wyomingpublicmedia.org

Asia’s Maternal Health Story Is Changing — And Young People Are Asking Bigger Questions

From Tokyo to rural villages, maternal health in Asia is rapidly changing.

May 18 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • globalcitizen.org

Virtual platform offers a valuable lifeline for rural primary care patients

An Indiana doctor built ChatRx, with e-prescribing built into its workflow, as an alternative to the long-drive, long-wait and high-cost alternative of in-person care delivery.

May 18 • 9:00 AM EDT • Health • healthcareitnews.com

How UNC Pembroke is addressing a shortage of science and math teachers in rural NC

UNC Pembroke is partnering with five rural North Carolina school districts to address a shortage of science and math teachers.

May 18 • 7:55 AM EDT • Science • wfae.org

How UNC Pembroke is addressing a shortage of science and math teachers in rural NC

UNC Pembroke is partnering with five rural North Carolina school districts to address a shortage of science and math teachers.

May 18 • 7:55 AM EDT • Science • wunc.org

North Dakota Rural Health Awards recipients named

Dr. Erika Stein of Northwood Deaconess Health Center and Shawnda Schroeder of the UND Department of Indigenous Health are among the awardees.

May 16 • 10:35 AM EDT • Health • grandforksherald.com

A North Carolina farmer is testing whether Democrats can still win rural America

In North Carolina, Jamie Ager is distancing himself from his national party to win a congressional seat.

May 16 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com

With dwindling health care options, rural residents wonder what’s next from a new Mayo Clinic CEO

Southern Minnesota communities served by the world-famous medical system are waiting to see whether Mayo expands its rural offerings or continues closing and consolidating locations.

May 16 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • startribune.com

North Dakota launches initiative focused on suicide prevention support and training for rural healthcare providers | Health and Human Services North Dakota

North Dakota is launching a new rural healthcare suicide prevention initiative aimed at strengthening follow-up care and closing critical gaps after suicide risk is identified. The effort follows recommendations from the North Dakota Suicide Fatality Review Commission and supports the Zero Suicide framework across rural and tribal healthcare systems.The initiative will support rural and tribal healthcare providers in implementing standardized suicide risk screening, follow-up care after suicide attempts and improved referral pathways into mental health and behavioral healthcare services.

May 15 • 9:00 PM EDT • Health • hhs.nd.gov

First Round Of Rural Health Transformation Funds Now Available   - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

The state’s nearly $200 million award from the federal government for 2026 aims to strengthen rural health systems statewide.

May 15 • 4:35 PM EDT • Health • wvpublic.org

How one rural health system is designing targeted AI pilots to ease care delivery pressures

Berkshire Health Systems CIO William Young says artificial intelligence must do more than impress people with new features. It has to save time, cut waste, and help a rural health system survive mounting financial and operational strain.

May 15 • 12:42 PM EDT • Health • healthcareitnews.com

Q&A: Changing the basic conditions under which rural care is delivered

Dr. Hamad Husainy says America's rural providers are doing heroic work with outdated systems, fractured communication and too little support. Meaningful transformation is possible, he says, but will require more than new technology.

May 15 • 11:44 AM EDT • Health • healthcareitnews.com

The State of Rural Hospitals in the U.S, 2012-2023

ASPE’s Office of Health Policy has developed an Issue Brief modeling the key determinants of rural hospital closure or conversion as well as an interactive Rural Hospital Dashboard to highlight key characteristics and trends among rural hospitals. The Issue Brief uses a Cox proportional hazards model to identify low occupancy rates, for-profit ownership and proximity to an urban county as key determinants of closure or conversion to outpatient only facilities.

May 15 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • aspe.hhs.gov

UNMC, UNK celebrate opening of rural health education complex

Kearney facilities expand UNMC offerings in medicine, pharmacy, public health, nursing and allied health.

May 15 • 3:00 AM EDT • Health • unmc.edu

"Only in Nebraska": Kearney welcomes nation's largest rural health education complex

Cold Open SOT Dr. Gold “only in Nebraska, my friend. And and here we are today. And I mean that sincerely, because this has been tried in Kansas, in Iowa, it's

May 14 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • nebraska.tv

Nebraska universities open largest rural health teaching complex in Kearney

The University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska at Kearney formally celebrated the opening of the Douglas A. Kristensen Rural Health Ed

May 14 • 6:35 PM EDT • Health • nebraska.tv

Governors’ Policy Actions in Rural Health Workforce

Rural Health Transformation Program Insights (Download) Governors play a critical role in shaping the health workforce, using levers such as budget proposals, executive authority, and cross-agency coordination to recruit, train, and regulate workers. States face workforce shortages, particularly in rural areas, which reduce access to healthcare, impact health outcomes and harm local economies. The Health […]

May 14 • 4:41 PM EDT • Health • nga.org

NC raids rural health fund for children’s hospital, setting up debate over future healthcare dollars

A new state budget deal to boost funding for a children’s hospital in Apex will siphon money from a rural health initiative that was supposed to build rural health centers, including in Wilson, but which has stalled for several years.

May 14 • 4:02 PM EDT • Health • wral.com

Rural Health Education Complex grand opening celebration set for Thursday

The ceremony will be followed by self-guided tours of the two buildings.

May 13 • 10:31 AM EDT • Health • unknews.unk.edu

River Hills Community Health Center announces closure of Centerville clinic

River Hills Community Health Center announced Tuesday it will close its Centerville clinic this summer, the second rural Iowa clinic the organization has shut down in recent weeks.

May 12 • 10:45 PM EDT • Health • kcrg.com

Scientists discover a mysterious silicone pollutant that may be everywhere

Researchers have uncovered unexpectedly high levels of silicone-based pollutants called methylsiloxanes floating through the atmosphere across cities, rural regions, and even forests. Much of the pollution appears to come from vehicle emissions, likely linked to engine oil additives that survive combustion and escape into the air. Scientists say humans may inhale more of these compounds daily than other notorious pollutants like PFAS or microplastics.

May 12 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

AgriSafe Network Offers 'Total Farmer Health Tools' To Support Mental Well-Being

New resources and peer-to-peer support networks are available to help combat rising rates of anxiety and depression in rural America.

May 12 • 3:34 PM EDT • Health • agweb.com

Clemson Rural Health announces temporary relocation of on-campus clinic

Clemson Rural Health’s Clemson Community Primary Care, home of the Joseph F. Sullivan Center, will be relocating during renovations to Edwards Hall.

May 12 • 8:19 AM EDT • Health • news.clemson.edu

Rural Ohio hospitals feel brunt of noncompete clauses as legislators eye ban

Noncompete clauses are older than the U.S. itself, but there are little federal or state guidelines.

May 12 • 6:04 AM EDT • Health • dispatch.com

The rural voice missing from the Nexstar debate

By Donald Valdez As a former state representative for District 62, in the southern part of the state, I spent years fighting to make sure the voices of rural Coloradans were heard in state decision-making. As a lifelong farmer, I know firsthand what comes with living in a rural community — and the unique needs […]

May 12 • 2:45 AM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com

Native American businesses have diversified beyond casinos to become a rural economic force. Trump is cutting off a lifeline that goes beyond tribes

Tribal enterprises are a lifeline for rural America, but a crackdown on federal contracting initiatives might upend their business model.

May 11 • 4:01 PM EDT • Business • fortune.com