Omaha World-Herald | Story and Photo by Linda Wuebben | February 6, 2010

RANDOLPH, Neb. — The Randolph Senior Citizens Center wants to “quilt the town” in celebration of Randolph’s quasquicentennial in 2011.

“When it was suggested, we thought it would be a good community project for our elderly residents,” said Leila Arduser, director of the center. “Our members cannot get around the best, and this was something we could do at the center.”

The suggestion came from Darlene Dowling, a local interior design specialist. She suggested painting “quilt blocks” and selling them to Randolph businesses and residents in celebration of the coming 125th anniversary of the city’s incorporation.

DailyYonder.com | By Neal Chamberlain and Robert C. Bowman | February 4, 2010

Kirksville R-III Geometry teacher Kim Belanger at Kirksville High School, one beneficiary of the school district's new approach to health care.

School districts in America are facing turbulent times. State funding sources are more limited. Local property values are going down along with tax receipts. Schools could likely make the adjustments for recession if recession were the only budgetary difficulty, but they also face the more serious, accelerating problem of health care cost increases.

As 70 - 80% of school expenditures cover personnel, school district budget officers have little choice but to freeze employee salaries or employ fewer teachers if they hope to meet health costs. It seems that school districts have been forced to choose between employee benefits and their primary task of education. Meanwhile, children in U.S. schools are falling behind their peers in other nations, just as they are falling behind in terms of overall well being.

VolunteerTV.com | By Staff | January 27, 2010

BRICEVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- A big surprise greeted patients, friends and co-workers at the Briceville Free Medical Clinic on Wednesday. Dr. Tom Kim was there to say goodbye and close up shop, but that all changed when, with a special announcement, tears of sorrow turned to tears of joy.

For nine years, people in Briceville, a little hollow of Anderson County, were treated to the free clinic, run by Dr. Kim, who also runs a free clinic in Knox County. But with friends, patients and employees on hand to say goodbye Wednesday, the clinic was preparing to close.

Omaha World-Herald News Service | By Rick Ruggles | January 24, 2010

OMAHA - Two Nebraska schools are teaming up to fight the state's rural doctor shortage.

The Kearney Health Opportunities Program, unveiled last week, will bring together the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Students accepted into the program will receive full tuition scholarships to UNK. They will be guaranteed admission to UNMC's med school as long as they maintain 3.5 grade-point averages at UNK, score 24 or better on the Medical College Admission Test and participate in various activities.

Special emphasis will be placed on applicants who are from rural areas of Nebraska and who are committed to returning to rural areas to practice.

Omaha World-Herald | By Joe Ruff | January 8, 2009

Wider availability of microloans and broadband Internet service, investment in wind energy, and less red tape in securing government grants and loans would help small-town Nebraska create and keep jobs, according to suggestions made Friday during a two-hour statewide video town hall meeting.

Ideas from the forum will be shared with President Barack Obama, Nebraska’s congressional delegation and state senators, said Maxine Moul, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program in Nebraska.

Reimagine Rural | By Mike Knutson | January 13, 2010

There’s no doubt that good restaurants are important to rural communities.  They make rural communities more attractive places to live.  They often serve as “informal meeting places where community is built” (e.g., third places).  And they often improve the local economy by giving people a place to spend their money locally. 

My guess is that Reuben Wentz must appreciate the importance of a good restaurant.  The 93-year-old retired farmer recently gave $500,000 to his hometown of Napoleon, North Dakota (pop. 857) to create a new community-owned restaurant.   

The restaurant replaces the old, deteriorating building that housed the community’s previous community-owned restaurant.  It sounds like they’ve got a good thing going with the restaurant.  Its features include:

• 6,000 square feet
• New, brightly lit kitchen
• TV monitors
• Wireless mikes for presentations

It’s also home to the Logan County Economic Development Offices, which set up the foundation that manages the restaurant.  I bet many of Napoleon’s neighboring communities are envious.

Bismark Tribune | By Christopher Bjorke, Photo by Mike McClearly | December 27, 2009

Wind power has been adding to North Dakota’s power generation capacity in multi-megawatt surges as turbine towers spring up across the landscape.

But apart from major wind farms, individuals can pull a couple of kilowatts from the air on a smaller scale with “small wind,” a niche power source that grew by 78 percent in the United States last year, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

“I think it’s a coming thing. We all know that electricity bills are going up,” said Art Mariner, who has been selling small wind power units at his GR-8 Country Wind Power business for about a year and a half. He said he installs an $18,000 to $19,000 tower and turbine unit about every two months, and expects to sell more in the spring.

Most of his customers live on farms and ranches, but he also installed a turbine at Bismarck State College this summer.

“It won’t totally cut out your bill. No matter how big the turbine is, the wind doesn’t always blow,” Mariner said. But with power generation capacities around 2.4 kilowatts an hour, it will take out a chunk of electricity expenses.

The Grand Island Independent | By Robert Pore | December 11, 2009

With the Senate debating health care reform, Nebraska rural, farm and other organizations are urging lawmakers, including U.S. Sens. Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns of Nebraska, to pass a reform package that places an emphasis on the acute problems farmers and rural Americans face in accessing affordable, quality health insurance.

A telephone conference with reporters took place on Thursday to address these concern. The message of the groups on the conference call was that increasing prices for premiums and a lack of competition in the health insurance market are threatening many farmers' and ranchers' livelihoods as they face medical bankruptcies or are forced to seek other work to gain insurance.

According to John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, the Senate bill offers significant help in addressing the issues faced by rural communities. He said provisions included in the bill aim to control health care costs for self-employed farmers, ranchers and small businesses that dominate rural economies.

The Wall Street Journal | By Gwendolyn Bounds Photo by Shane Dawley | December 2, 2009

In June, 40-year-old Shane Dawley and his 36-year-old wife, Rhonda, uprooted themselves and their four boys from their suburban Atlanta rental home and bought an old five-acre farm in Ogdensburg, Wisc. Their goal: Flee the rat race and adopt a more self-reliant lifestyle amid the troubled economy.

While Mr. Dawley, who had worked at a parking garage, hasn't found a full-time job yet, he's been working on nearby farms learning new skills (one person paid him with an old John Deere tractor), and his family is raising chickens while learning to garden and hunt.

"Our generation has never seen anything like this," says Mr. Dawley of the economic downturn. "Fear sometimes is a good thing and will push you to do things you ordinarily wouldn't."

LiveScience.com | By LiveScience Staff | December 2, 2009

For many people "rural" is synonymous with low incomes, limited economic opportunity, and poor schools. However, a recent study found that much of rural America is actually prosperous, particularly in the Midwest and Plains.

Researchers just had to look at things differently to see the prosperity.

The study — announced today and based on date from the year 2000 — analyzed unemployment rates, poverty rates, high school drop-out rates, and housing conditions to identify prospering communities. The result: One in five rural counties in the United States is prosperous, doing better than the nation as a whole on all these measures.

Industry Leaders, Including Dell, Microsoft, Spectrum Bridge and the TDF Foundation, Join to Improve Education, Economic Opportunity and Quality of Life for Claudville, Va. Residents

BusinessWire | October 21, 2009

BUSINESS WIRE)--For the first time in the U.S., unused TV broadcast channels freed up by the transition to digital TV are being used to wirelessly deliver high-speed Internet connectivity to business, education and community users. These unused frequencies are commonly referred to as TV white spaces. Under an experimental license granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Spectrum Bridge designed and deployed a wireless TV white spaces network to distribute broadband Internet connectivity in Claudville, Virginia. To ensure that Claudville residents can make the most of this new high-speed connectivity, Dell, Microsoft and the TDF Foundation contributed state-of-the-art computer systems and software applications to the local school, as well as the town’s new computer center. As a result, Claudville residents have already begun to reap the benefits of joining the online community.

From the USDA's Economic Research Service Briefing Room

Overview

The rural outdoors has become a major asset for rural communities—and a key advantage that some rural areas have over urban areas. The rural outdoors can be enhanced through the construction of recreation facilities, but undeveloped rural landscapes have appeal on their own, both for recreation and as attractive places to live. This briefing room looks at the appeal of rural landscapes, the importance of forest landscape preferences, and the role of scenic amenities across the rural-urban continuum. 

Vist the site below for the full briefing:

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/RuralAmenities/

Legislation would make insurance and providers more accessible

The Salt Lake Tribune | By Christopher Smart | October 28, 2009

The health-care crisis in this country is felt nowhere more than in rural America, where a lack of providers and affordable insurance coverage leaves many without needed treatment or in a financial bind. 

For example, one in five farmers in the United States is in "medical debt," according to a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius unveiled the new report, "More Choices, Better Coverage: Health Insurance Reform and Rural America," in a conference call with journalists Tuesday, and said health-care reform legislation now making its way through Congress would provide more choices and affordable care to 50 million Americans who live in rural areas. 

It also would provide incentives to attract doctors and nurses to the countryside locales.

Many in the ag industry are using Twitter
and blogs to communicate, educate.

Fresnobee.com, The Fresno Bee | Article by Robert Rodriguez, Photo by Mark Crosse | October 11, 2009

With a hand-held video camera, a computer and 800 cows, Barbara Martin of Lemoore is letting the world into her life as a dairy operator.

No, it's not a new reality television show. And Martin isn't craving her 15 minutes of fame.

But she is joining a growing number of farmers and others in agriculture who are using social media tools to communicate with each other, send out information and educate the public about agriculture.

Dairy operators have become especially skilled at launching Facebook pages, blog posting and using Twitter, a microblogging site.

Martin uses all three to tell the public about the family's 800-cow dairy. She launched her blog, "A Dairy Goddess's Blog," in late August.

Every now and then, you stumble upon a town that's gotten everything right—great coffee, food with character, shop owners with purpose. These 10 spots have it all, in perfectly small doses.

By Yahoo Travel, various contributors 

Cayucos, Calif.
(pop. 3,000)
serious waves and serious food

About halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Cayucos is everything you want in a mellow beach town — an anomaly on the increasingly built-up coast. While the vibe is decidedly relaxed, two things get residents fired up: serious waves and serious food. Surfer Wade Rumble bridges both worlds as owner of Rogue Wave Cafe, where most mornings, after drying off his board, he sells fair-trade, organic coffee beans. Just off Highway 1, Cayucos requires a dedicated detour, which has helped it remain untouched. "We have beautiful beaches and beautiful people," says Christa Hozie, who runs Brown Butter Cookie Company with her sister Traci Nickson; the duo make super-addictive sea-salt-topped cookies. "I came to visit three years ago and thought it was such a magical place," explains Hozie. Grace Lorenzen had a similar reaction. She moved back to the Central Coast from Seattle in 2002 and now manages the five-room Cass House Inn (from $165). The restored 1860s Victorian has a fitting soundtrack for the coastal town: the lulling surf. — Mario López-Cordero