Affordable housing in Wiscasset, Maine is stalled after a proposed data center disrupted plans, farms and ranches now account for 83 percent of solar projects and Colorado farmers turn to rye after a record-setting dry winter.

Political attitudes among rural voters are shifting, maternity care is complex – and becoming more so in rural Illinois communities where demographics have changed and Minnesotans vow to fight efforts overturning a ban on mining in the Boundary Waters.

A loophole in reimbursement rates is partly to blame for rural hospitals closing, Maine may become the first state to ban large-scale data centers and farmers’ financial woes are made worse by laws that prevent them from fixing their farm equipment.