CNN reporters fact-checked several points from Trump's acceptance speech, a few of which are highlighted below. For CNN's complete fact-check story, click here. The Rural Blog will run a CNN fact-check story after the Democratic National Convention in August.
As Democrats look for ways to regain footing with working-class voters, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat from a previously red district in Oregon, is a living example of changes her party may need to embrace if it wants to gain votes from people who "work for a living," writes Jason Zengerle for The New York Times. "Before she was elected to Congress, in 2022, Gluesenkamp Perez ran an auto-repair shop with her husband."
As rural women have fewer babies, hospitals that once served more remote locations have closed their labor and delivery units, which leaves rural pregnant women facing maternity care deserts, reports Tony Leys of KFF Health News. In many areas, women leaving or not wanting to relocate to smaller towns with limited obstetric care has contributed to rural population loss.
Extreme weather is often associated with flooded, wind-flattened or burned-to-the-ground homes and businesses. Rural areas have an added exposure to big losses that other areas don't have -- crops, animals and farm equipment can be damaged or annihilated during weather events.
All creatures and plants, great and small --- The Rural Blog covers them all.
Report for America, a national service program, wants to help newsrooms across the United States -- and particularly in rural areas -- add more than 50 positions next summer. Applications are open for newsrooms interested in hosting journalists for up to three years, with part of the salary paid by the Report for America program.
Razor-thin profit margins and see-saw market prices already make the life of U.S. dairy farmers tough. Farmers must now contend with the unknowns of an evolving bird flu virus, which could infect herds and farm workers.
As urban sprawl and industrial developments eat up Virginia countryside, Rappahannock County turns against the tide to remain a quiet, rural area with a protected "view shed.". . . . While other Virginia counties take the "easy dollars" developers are waving, Rappahannock County has a different goal: To remain a part of the state's "dead zone."
Is it possible to create a planet where plastic production and waste aren't a constant problem? Maybe. In March 2022, the United Nations "pledged to negotiate a treaty to 'end plastic pollution,' with the goal of delivering a final draft by 2025. One proposed solution was to negotiate with plastic makers to produce less, which hasn't happened. But. . .