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Despite the fact that more women are going into veterinary medicine than ever before, some female practitioners in rural areas still face discrimination and pay gaps — problems experts say the industry will need to overcome to fill a shortage of animal care in those communities.
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Auctions — a marketplace for knick knacks, farm land and everything in between — are often also gathering events for rural communities. That’s changing as more auctions go online.
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The consumer price index is widely used by Americans to determine inflation, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics only surveys American counties that include a metro or micropolitan area.
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The child care gap across the country is more than 30%, meaning the need for quality child care far outweighs the supply — and it's worse in rural areas.
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Most states where more than 20% of the population is rural don't have laws requiring some kind of paid sick or general paid time off. A federal COVID relief package temporarily required a minimum of two weeks paid sick leave, but people in rural areas have been left in the lurch since that policy expired at the end of 2020.
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A new report from the USDA shows that rural areas are continuing to see growth among people over 65 while the working age population continues to decline.
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The national battle against abortion has reached small local governments. Towns in Nebraska and Texas have banned abortion within their borders, even if they don’t have a clinic. But in one community, that effort could interrupt abortion access for the entire region.
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COVID relief money was supposed to be a lifeline for small towns recovering from the pandemic, but some found the paperwork too daunting and missed on on the funds.
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Air pollution has traditionally been measured by the size of particles, which tend to be larger in urban areas than in rural ones. But a new study from the University of Illinois suggests that the toxicity of air in rural areas is just as bad as in urban ones.
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The federal government is offering grant money to help address the problem, but small towns fear they lack the tech knowhow and resources to defend their systems and are daunted by grant applications.