Rural & Small Communities

With no local access to prescription drugs, the town of Walden, Colorado has crowdsourced a delivery system, taking advantage of anyone’s trip to those bigger cities to pick up medications for the rest of the town.

The digital divide in the Mountain West stretches across vast swaths of rural, urban and Native lands and disproportionately affects residents in low-income brackets and people of color. But as federal pandemic relief dollars start flowing into state coffers, the cash is opening up opportunities to dramatically expand broadband access in Western communities and beyond.

When states drew up their vaccination plans, “transportation was this forgotten variable.” It just wasn’t factored into all the barriers health officials were anticipating for the vaccine rollout, said Shawnda Schroeder of University of North Dakota's Center for Rural Health.

When the COVID-19 vaccines become more widely available, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will partner with retail pharmacies such as...

The local health department has diverted thousands of dollars of CARES Act funding to create a special mobile health clinic specifically for delivering COVID-19 vaccines to rural communities.

Democrats once again lost ground in much of the rural West. That includes Montana, where Republicans swept the election for the first time in at least two decades. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., will soon be the lone progressive holding federal office in the state. He spoke about lessons learned from November's election with reporter Nate Hegyi of the Mountain West News Bureau.

The Americans with Disabilities Act is now 30 years old. Among its many provisions, the ADA prevents employment discrimination and provides support services like interpreters. But advocates say more work needs to be done to fulfill the law’s promise of independent living, especially in rural areas.

Libby, Montana was already living with an invisible enemy that attacks the lungs long before COVID-19. For the past century, asbestos has killed hundreds in this small town — at least. That experience informs how it’s reacting to the pandemic today.

COVID-19 infections are waning slightly in the rural U.S., but the number of deaths there is still climbing.

Nate Hegyi, rural reporter for the Mountain West News Bureau, is embarking on a 900-mile cycling trip crisscrossing the continental divide in August and September, interviewing and listening to Americans ahead of the 2020 election.